MP3: Parts & Labor – Constant Future

I was first introduced to Brooklyn experimental noise-rock band, Parts & Labor in 2007 with their frenetic album Mapmaker, an album that made a strong initial impact and has held up very well over the last few years. The band is back with a vengeance with their new album, Constant Future. The title track and first single spotlights the band’s huge, sweeping noise-fest of layered sound. Minimalists these guys are not. The band takes the cacophonous soundscape of spiraling electronics and crashing drums and manages to wield it into a uproariously powerful and unusually catchy rock anthem. Constant Future will be released on Jagjaguwar this March.

MP3 Parts & Labor – Constant Future

Also, that is some some crazy rad album art, fellas.

Album Cover Look-Alikes Mix

Inspired by the whole U2-ripping-off-our-album-cover controversy (if you haven’t already heard, read about it here), I’ve decided to make a mix featuring album covers that have striking, and seemingly accidental, similarities to one another.  It’s like that movie where the Olsen twins run into each other at summer camp and discover they are “identical strangers”.  Except none of these albums feature the talents of Steve Guttenburg and Kirstie Alley, which is disappointing to say the least.  So here you are.  Enjoy!

MP3 Explosions in the Sky – Your Hand in Mine
MP3 Stars – Ageless Beauty

MP3 Broken Social Scene – Ibi Dreams Of Pavement (A Better Day)
MP3 Parts and Labor – Fractured Skies

MP3 Mountain Goats – Cubs in Five
Youtube: Coldplay – Shiver

MP3 Radiohead – Knives Out
MP3 Interpol – NYC

MP3 Ratatat – Wildcat
MP3 Against Me! – Borne On The FM Waves

MP3 Feist – Mushaboom
MP3 Eagle*Seagull – Your Beauty is a Knife I Turn on my Throat

MP3 Massive Attack – Teardrop
MP3 Flying Lotus -Parisan Goldfish

Credit to this message board thread to many of these finds. If you have some more oddly similar album covers I didn’t mention? Let me know in the comments…

And hey I got a new post up at MTVU on Lily Allen.  Go, read now.

Best Music Videos of 2007

Here listed before you are hands-down the 22 best music videos of the year 2007. I’m not saying I watched every music video in 2007, but I’m just going to assume that all the other ones completely suck (for purposes of this list). I’m estimating it would take about an hour and a half to watch all these videos, but seriously, do you have anything better to do today? To make it easier though, I’ve embedded them all below. Also, except for the five at the end (which are the best) the order is completely random.

As you can tell by the list I like videos that use stop-motion, videos all done in one take, bright colors, interesting effects, Wes Anderson nods, changing t-shirts, ridiculously high drum cymbals, etc. As always, If you have any favorites videos from the year that you think I missed, make sure to leave it in the comments. I provided MP3s for some of the songs that you might not already have. The first three are embedded below but you will have to click through to see the whole list.

The Shins – Australia

Noah and the Whale – Five Years Time MP3

Patrick Wolf – The Magic Position

Click the link below to see the whole list including my top five!

There Should Be More Songs With Bagpipes… Revisited!

I appreciate when artists use nontraditional sounds/instruments in music. Trumpets are used everywhere now and accordions and banjos have been growing steadily with popularity but while those instruments are all good, why hasn’t there been a bagpipe revival yet? I made a post about the world needing more bagpipes last year and nothing seemed to happen, and now I think it’s time to bring the discussion back into the limelight.

It could be my Scottish ancestry but I’m under the impression that bagpipes rock, so to all of the Sufjans and Meloys of the world, try setting down your banjos or accordians every once in and while and pick up a bagpipe. Here’s some solid proof of my bagpipes rock claim, nicely categorized for your listening pleasure.

Indie Goes Bagpipe!

MP3 Neutral Milk Hotel – Untitled
MP3 Shearwater – Mountain Laurel
MP3 Rilo Kiley – A Better Son/Daughter
MP3 Belle & Sebastian – Sleep The Clock Around

Australia Goes Bagpipe!

MP3 AC/DC – Long Way To The Top If You Want to Rock and Roll
MP3 The Church – Under The Milky Way
MP3 Dirty Three – Doris

Really Odd Uses of Bagpipe!

MP3 The Roots – Do You Want More?!!!??!
MP3 Parts and Labor – A Great Divide

Not Really A Bagpipe But You Could Have Fooled Me! (real instruments used in parenthesis)

MP3 Big Country – In A Big Country (Electric Guitar)
MP3 Flogging Molly – Death Valley Queen (Uilleann Pipes)

Any bagpipe tunes I’m missing? Leave it in the comments!