Lust, Lust, Lust

Before Lust Lust Lust, my favorite thing from the Danish pop group The Raveonettes was the delightful “Christmas Song” they did for the Maybe This Christmas series. I’m kicking myself now for not getting any of their LPs because this new one from theres is pretty spectacular. The Raveonettes have a few tricks up their sleeves with Lust Lust Lust, throwing some heavy distortion and fuzz into the mix while still managing to sound like 60’s girl groups. As seen by the acoustic videos though, if you cut through all the frills it’s just really really catchy indie pop.

“Dead Sound” is the first single from the band and the reason I fell head-over-heals for the album. The song has it all: reverbed-out verses, beautiful harmonies, and angsty noise-pop guitar. Some comparisons have been rightfully made to Jesus and Mary Chain, who doesn’t borrow from them these days though?. “Hallucinations” is big highlight on the album, a song that builds from a urgent bass line and sugar sweet melody, into a complete noise-gasm. I honestly can’t get enough of this album.

MP3 The Raveonettes – Dead Sound
MP3 The Raveonettes – Hallucinations

Get Lust Lust Lust
Myspace

Here’s the Christmas song I mentioned also because I’m in a very giving mood:

MP3 The Raveonettes – The Christmas Song

Girl Talk / Dan Deacon – Live @ The Metro

I could write a lengthy review of the crazy, sweaty electronic dance-fest that was Saturday Night, but I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking. I was extremely happy to see a full set by Dan Deacon who was cut short at Pitchfork Fest last year, and Saturday brought even more of his eccentric behavior (including stretching to “What Is Love”, shouting out our top 10 favorite scenes from Jim Carey’s The Mask, and doing a gauntlet around the room). “Wham City” was played in it’s full glory and it was amazing.

MP3 Dan Deacon – Wham City

The Girl Talk show started with a massive stage-rush as fans crowded around Greg Gillis to begin the dance. I didn’t quite make it up but I was close enough to get some amazing shots and have a lot of fun dancing to samples from the likes of Clipse, Ace of Base, Biggie, M.I.A., Tag Team, Smashing Pumpkins, and Kelly Clarkson. The best sample of the night had to be Journey’s “Faithfully” during the encore. Such an epic ending to a extremely bizzare and wonderful night.

MP3 Girl Talk – Bounce That
MP3 Girl Talk – Smash Your Head

View the complete photoset at Pictures For Kids Who Can’t Read Good.

You should know, I was once a skeleton…

Although I never got into to Oklahoma psych-pop band Evangelicals‘ first album, I’m finding myself completely entranced by the band’s newest offering The Evening Descends. In the first big release week of the year, it’s my favorite album (although Black Mountain gives it some competition). Much of the album plays out like some creepy, horror B-movie in space. The band’s psychedlic, dreamy, noisy sound has led them to often be compared with The Flaming Lips, and it’s a comparison that serves them well. What makes the band interesting is with all the trippy, spooky atmospherics they still maintain an incredible pop sensibility.

“Skeleton Man” sounds at times like a darker Clap Your Hands Say Yeah with an strong 80’s influence (think The Cure more than Talking Heads). A mountain of heavy distortion as well some ghostly whispers add to the texture of the song, while a strong melody and some crazy guitar shredding make the track even more impressive. “Party Crashin” is another fantastic exploration into kaleidoscopic ambience and retro pop heroics . Both songs as well as the album come highly recommended.

MP3 Evangelicals – Skeleton Man
MP3 Evangelicals – Party Crashin’

Myspace
Buy The Evening Descends

Surrounded

Surrounded is yet another wonderful musical export from Sweden. When the band is not standing in front of giant barcodes looking rather bored, they’re making lush atmospheric rock music and that is anything but boring. On The Nautical Years, Surrounded’s second album, they have proven themselves to be highly skilled in creating soaring epics full of flourishing instrumentation.

The first single on the album is the breathtaking “Safe Tomorrow Sun”, which encapsulates everything there is to like about the band. The instrumentation is spectacular featuring spirited guitar and violin parts over a lightly strummed acoustic and earnest vocals. The triumphant climax brings the song to new heights. “In Comfort’s Tight Clothes” showcases the band’s ability to create deep layers of gorgeous sonic textures. The band smartly allows the tracks to reveal itself and expand over time, making celestial bursts at the end of the songs much more satisfying. The Nautical Years is available for digital download now at One Indian Records and will be released world-wide on February 2008.

MP3 Safe Tomorrow Sun
MP3 In Comfort’s Tight Clothes

***

I had a request for my opinion about the film, Cloverfield, so here it is. I thought it was a very well-executed and thought-provoking film. J.J. Abrams is a master at creating suspense and thrills and I was glad to see that Drew Goddard (who has written some of my favorite LOST episodes) was the lead writer for the movie. I have to mention though that I did get a bit of motion sickness from watching the extremely shaky handheld footage, and had to look away a number of times. I would suggest taking some Dramamine with you just in case. In reality though, it just added to the intense movie-going experience. It’s definitely recommended.

On a related note, you can download the entire playlist from Rob’s going away party at this site. I was impressed with the Spoon, Of Montreal, and Architecture in Helsinki inclusions.

Juno Soundtrack

I saw Juno a couple weeks ago and I thought it was brilliant. It did have some flaws, some of the cast was a bit underused (cough, Michael Cera) and they could have given Rainn Wilson more than three lines, but as far as cute, quirky indie films go, this is up there with Little Miss Sunshine and Garden State. One thing consistent with all these films is superb soundtracks, and this one might be the best of the bunch. While Garden State featured The Shins and Little Miss Sunshine featured Devotchka, this one features the work of Kimya Dawson, both solo and with The Moldy Peaches. I was only slightly familiar with Dawson’s music going into the movie and I must say that her music added a lot to the film and I was extremely excited when the Juno Soundtrack arrived at my door stop so I could listen further.

This soundtrack flows beautifully and has a fantastic mix of indie folk and classic rock tunes. I was happy to hear lesser-known gems from Velvet Underground, Buddy Holly, and The Kinks make an appearance on this album while the Bowie-penned “All The Young Dudes” and Sonic Youth’s spacey, ironic take on “Superstar” bring some sense of familiarity to the table. There’s also beautiful Cat Power song on the album, “Sea of Love”, and two of my favorite Belle & Sebastian songs (I admittedly was singing along to “Piazza, New York Catcher” in the theatre). As for Kimya Dawson’s multiple contributions the standouts are “Tire Swing” and the film-closer “Anyone Else But You”. There’s a wide-eyed optimism and very sweet quality to Dawson’s songs and they make for fun sing-a-longs. The Juno Soundtrack isn’t just thrown together songs from the movie, it’s an album you’ll want to listen to from start to finish. If you enjoyed the film or just love folk songs in general, I strongly recommend picking it up.

MP3 Kimya Dawson – Tire Swing
MP3 Belle & Sebastian – Piazza, New York Catcher

Watch Juno Trailer

Angels of Destruction

So far the best thing about signing up for that make-your-own-price PASTE subscription is that it introduced me to the Philly folk-rockers, Marah (who got a nice 4.5 star review in the magazine). Although it seems like I’m a bit late to the party, this being the band’s sixth full length album. Even so, I was immediately impressed by the band’s loose alt-country stylings and the Springsteen influences.

Easily my favorite track on the album is the title track, “Angels of Destruction”. It’s a joyous, dynamic, and just plain fun tune with loose, unconstrained guitar and playful piano. Simply a great rock n’ roll bar tune. Another track on the album I enjoy is the Philly soul-tackling “Old Time Tickin’ Away” which is similarly adventurous and raucous in it’s delivery. You can grab Angels of Destruction for 10 bucks at Yep Rock Records and if you’re a fan of alt-country or just old time rock and roll I suggest you do.

MP3 Angels of Destruction
MP3 Old Time Tickin’ Away

Macbook Air / Yael Naim's "New Soul"

Photo by mac rumours

There’s been rumours that Apple was working on a super-thin laptop, but I don’t think anyone expected this. It’s saying something that the first words those I’ve observed looking at it for the first time have been something along the lines of “Holy freakin’ $&@#, that thing is thin!”. With all the necessary add-ons and dongles, the laptop is going to get very pricey, but I’m sure it’ll sell like hot cakes to those early-adopters-with-tons-of-money folks.

The marketing team at Apple, the geniuses that they are, created a commercial showing off how you easily can fit the 3 pound laptop into a manilla folder. The song accompanying the ad is a suitably light and airy jazz-pop tune called “New Soul” from Israeli artist Yael Naim. While you only hear the first 30 seconds in the Macbook Air commercial, the full song makes nice use of bouncy trumpets, harpsichord, handclaps, and even a heavenly-sounding choir for the ending. Good find, Apple! Download the tune below and purchase her album here:

MP3 New Soul

View the commercial
Friend Yael Naim at myspace

Okay – Huggable Dust

I discovered the band, Okay, a couple days ago and their songs keep getting better and better with repeated listenings. Their music is so delicate, it feels like it could fall apart any second or that Marty Anderson’s voice will just disappear into the wind. The fact that Okay could easily be called bedroom pop, is in a sense ironic, because Anderson, the lead singer and songwriter, has a disease (Crohn’s) that confines him to his bedroom. Making the best out of a tragic situation though, Okay’s music (which was, out of necessity, recorded in Anderson’s bedroom) is absolutely gorgeous and heartbreaking.

Save the title track, every song on Huggable Dust has a one-word title and most of tracks are three minutes or less. This strive for simplicity is illustrated as well in the songs itself many of which produce beauty out of the simplest of chord structures. The album hooks you right from the beginning with “My”. The combination of synths and ukelele and that scratchy, fragile voice in the song is stunningly gorgeous. It’s followed up by “Only” a folk-pop gem that goes just as quick as it comes, but at 1:27 is still entirely affecting. Just these two tracks should be enough to get you craving for more, so you’ll be happy to know that Huggable Dust is being released early this year on Absolutely Kosher.

MP3 My
MP3 Only

Okay’s Myspace
Additional Reviews from You Ain’t No Picasso and Peer Validated

Newsflashes: Hot Chip, Anathallo, LOST in 8:15

Hot Chip have taken an early lead for a spot in my “top music videos of ’08” list with a “Ready for the Floor” video that gives Heath Ledger a run for his money. I’m liking their new LP, Made in the Dark, more and more each day and they chose a great song for the first single here. The video is part Adam West-era Batman, part Talking Heads, and part iPod Silhouette commercial. I think you’ll enjoy it.

MP3 Hot Chip – Ready for the Floor

***

Anathallo has a new record planned for this year and the live videos and recordings are getting me pretty excited. They debuted 3 new songs for nonstopriot.com last year which you can view by clicking this link (you’ll have to wade through interviews though) and you can check out a recording of “Noni’s Field” by yours truly by clicking here. You can download a live recording of a 5th new song below (via Count Me Out)

MP3 Anathallo – Tower of Babel (Live)

You might have heard Anathallo’s music in a recent Vick’s Vapor Rub commercial (youtube link) which, in itself, is pretty bizzare. The song is “Yuki Yuki Yuki” and it amazes me that the editors cut the song (which is only 1:14 in length) into three parts for the spot. It makes for a fun see-if-you-can-hear-the-transition game. Apparentally the commercial was enough to pay for the band’s entire album recording which is pretty cool. Congrats guys!

MP3 Anathallo – Yuki Yuki Yuki

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In TV news, I’m making plans for the LOST Season 4 premiere which is in less than three weeks and will undoubtedly blow my mind. For the Losties out there, there’s a pretty humorous summation of all three seasons in 8 minutes and 15 seconds online, that you can download (for free) on iTunes or stream on youtube. I enjoy the part about Michael’s iChat with Walt and Mr. Friendly’s girlish football skills.

Everyone get your chicken dance on because there’s hope for more Arrested Development yet. Keith Obermann summarizes the recent AD:Movie rumors and delivers some high praise for the show in this clip.

Fanfarlo

It’s true that 2008 (so far) doesn’t have nearly the major indie band appeal that 2007 had. January ’07 alone had The Shins, Of Montreal, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Menomena, and Deerhoof and blockbuster releases from Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Wilco, and LCD Soundsystem were just on the horizon. In 2008, I’m expecting there to be many more surprises and alot more new bands emerging. One that might just be able to fill those weighty shoes, is London’s Fanfarlo. While most of their music is in demo form right now, it’s showing a ton of promise.

The band has it’s roots in Swedish indie pop (their lead singer is originally from Sweden) but I feel the instrumentation owes more to the Montreal pop scene than anything. It would be fair to say Fanfarlo sounded like The Shout Out Louds channeled through Arcade Fire (also like Win, Regine, and the gang – David Bowie counts himself as a fan). A great starting point for the band is their instantly likeable first single, “Fire Escape”, with it’s swirly keyboard intro, airy melodies, and well-placed trumpet solo. The demos, “Sand and Ice” and “Outsiders” are even better delving into much more ornate instrumentation and creative syncopation. In short, this band is going places, and I suggest you get on board.

MP3 Fire Escape
MP3 Sand and Ice
MP3 You Are One of the Few Outsiders That Understand Us

Fanfarlo’s myspace
Additional reviews from The Yellow Stereo, mp3hugger