You know how to whistle, don't you?

From “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” to “Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard” to basically any song by Andrew Bird, there’s always something about whistling that that makes a track burrow deep inside your brain and stay there. Earlier this year, Foster The People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” turned a catchy melody and even catchier whistle into a massive crossover hit (it even inspired a cover version by Weezer). This is nothing new of course, if you look at the most popular indie songs of the past few years you’ll find that many of them feature a healthy dosage of whistles (see: “Tighten Up”, “Home”, “Young Folks”). In a tribute to fine artform of just putting your lips together and blowing, I’ve made a mix of some of my favorite whistling tunes, including ones you all know as well as a few that may have slipped under your radar. Enjoy!

MP3 Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks
MP3 Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tick Motion of the Head to the Left
MP3 Chad VanGalen – Sara
MP3 Noah and the Whale – 5 Years Time
MP3 Rilo Kiley – Ripchord
MP3 De La Soul – Eye Know
MP3 The New Pornographers – Crash Years
MP3 Suckers – Roman Candles
MP3 Black Keys – Tighten Up
MP3 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – Simple Girl
MP3 Paul Simon – Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard
MP3 Radical Face – Glory
MP3 Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks
MP3 David Bowie – Golden Years
MP3 The Maccabees – Toothpaste Kisses
MP3 TV on the Radio – A Method
MP3 Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Home
MP3 Lovin’ Spoonful – Daydream
MP3 Loney Dear – I Was Only Going Out
MP3 Karen O and the Kids – All Is Love

Let me know some of your favorite whistling songs in the comments!

Commercial Watch: New Pornographers, Caribou, Best Coast, Those Darlins + more

It’s time for the annual Summer Edition of Commercial Watch, where I again highlight some of the songs that those marketing folks are harvesting for mass consumption. Since I realize most of you are the Hulu / DVR / next-day-on-youtube type, you’ve probably been blissfully unaware of the indie-savvy beer, car, and shoe ads that have been lighting up TV screens, so I’ve dug up some of the best ones for you. Lucky for you, there’s been a surplus in the past few months of indie music in commercials and it doesn’t look like the trend is going to stop anytime soon. The ads are all embedded below with MP3s included. Make sure to click the continue reading link to see the full post (it’s good till the last drop).

Amazon Kindle: The Book Lives On

MP3 The New Pornographers – Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk

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Molson Canadian: Reward Us

MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – Stamp

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2011 Lexus CT200h: Moment of Pure Discovery

MP3 Caribou – Odessa

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Bud Light Lime: Store

MP3 Peter, Bjorn and John – Second Chance

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2012 Kia Sorento: Joyride II

MP3 Those Darlins – Red Light Love

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The Best of Andreas Nilsson

If you follow this blog closely you may have noticed that I have a deep appreciation for music videos and currently I don’t think there’s anyone out there who’s doing it better then Swedish director Andreas Nilsson. He made my favorite music video last year with his fantastically haunting clip for Fever Ray’s “If I Had A Heart” and his outlandishly bizarre video for MGMT’s “Flash Delirium” is currently holding the top spot for this year. His latest opus Yeasayer’s “Madder Red” was just released in the last few days and further showcases his mastery of storytelling and his whimsical outlook.

Since becoming a Andreas Nilsson fan I’ve gone through his whole videography and have found a number of older gems as well. It seems almost all of his earlier work was for Swedish artists (The Knife and Jose Gonzalez being his most frequent collaborators) and he apparently used way more animation back then but his stylistic vision and offbeat eccentricities were still clearly evident. I’d love to see him do a full-length feature sometime. Below I have compiled ten of my favorite Andreas Nilsson videos for your viewing pleasure. I recommend visiting his section at Streetgang Films and his wiki page to explore more of his incredible work.

Yeasayer: Madder Red MP3

Röyksopp: This Must Be It

MGMT: Flash Delirium MP3

Miike Snow

Miike Snow @ Neumos 06-13-09 photo by Jason Tang

In the wise words of Shakespeare, “what’s in a name?” While one might assume Miike Snow is just another DJ, this three-piece band works with more than just a crossfader to dot their i’s. After remixing some of the most popular songs of the year, Pontus Winnberg, Kristian Carlsson, and Andrew Wyatt have hyper-produced a sound that encompasses all things listenable, drawing comparisons to Passion Pit, Animal Collective, and Peter Bjorn and John. Their self-titled album is strong evidence of experience and audible restraint, with just the right amount of vocals and instrumentation to charm the unconvinced.

Quickly reviewing the backgrounds of this trio might better explain how this balancing act is achieved. Pontus and Kristian estbalished a Sweden-based music production and songwriting team known as Bloodshy & Avant. Together they have co-wrote and produced grammy-winning hits for headliners like Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, and Jennifer Lopez… and while I understand name-dropping never works as it should, there isn’t an easier way to say that they’ve been successfully producing for nearly a decade.

Then we have Mr. Wyatt… Andrew was signed on Columbia Records UK as a solo artist when he and Greg Kurstin of The Bird and the Bee formed a band called the Funkraphiliacs. He later filled-in as a bassist for The A.M. and co-wrote the strongest songs on their self-titled debut, alongside Parker Kindred (Jeff Buckley’s former drummer) and Michael Tighe, whom he is working with again in a folk-act called, Tiggers (YouTube: The Likes of You).

I know you’re probably wondering what any of this information has to do with anything and my answer to you is, well, just listen. Miike Snow is a modern love-story of two worldly producers and a compassionate songwriter finding a happy medium… and in the wise words of Shakespeare, “all’s well that ends well.”

Oh, wait. That’s another play.

MP3 Animal
MP3 Sylvia

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!

The Halloween Parties Super Mix Fun Time

This is the post where I put up pictures from various Halloween parties over the last few days that I either attended or hosted and then upload an MP3 to go along with them. Scroll over the pictures for a description. Feel free to comment on which is your favorite costumes and/or put up a link to your own.

MP3 Neil Young – Down By The River
MP3 TV Theme – Walker, Texas Ranger

MP3 Radiohead – Subterranean Homesick Alien

MP3 Midlake – Bandits

MP3 Colour Revolt – Blood in your Mouth

MP3 The Smiths – The Boy With The Thorn In His Side

MP3 The Clash – I Fought The Law

MP3 Deep Blue Something – Breakfast at Tiffanys

MP3 The Magnetic Fields – Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits
MP3 Peter Bjorn & John – Poor Cow

MP3 The Good Life – Playing Dumb (<–recommended download)

MP3 Echo & The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon

MP3 Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama

MP3 Death Cab for Cutie – Debate Exposes Doubt
MP3 R.E.M. – Nightswimming

MP3 David Bowie – I’m Afraid of Americans

MP3 Elliott Smith – Needle in the Hay

Top 10 Music Videos of 2007 (so far)

We’re three months in on 2007 and there’s been a lot to talk about music-wise. An argument could be made that in the first third of this year, there’s already been as many great releases as all of last year. I’m completely bypassing that stuff though and focusing on best music videos of the year. I’ve picked out ten that are really exceptional and put them in a semi-non-ordered list.

Click here to see the all ten videos.

Of Montreal – Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse

One of my favorite songs of the year and also one of my favorite videos. It’s basically a very odd high school play. What other video has a dancing cowboy grizzly bear that’s very good at playing RISK, a man in a white jumpsuit that has a giant lobster claw, and a sword fight with a muscular angel in outerspace!

MP3 Heimdalsgate like a Promethean Curse

Grizzly Bear – Knife

This is another bizarre video that includes some very amazing stop-motion effects as well as what I think is a form of claymation. The storyline has something to do with a man who is hurt by technology and wants to go back to mother nature (the way he does so is really odd). The video fits the music perfectly.

MP3 Knife

Modest Mouse – Dashboard

This video is on the lighter side of things and features Isaac Brock with a huge beard telling sea stories with a number of old bearded guys that make hilarious facial expressions. He ends up discovering Atlantis at the end but my favorite scene is when Brock is acting out his adventure with two mops.

MP3 Dashboard

Ben Kweller – Penny on a Train Track

This is by far the simplest video of the bunch. It’s of Ben Kweller’s grandma doing jazzercize to the song (which is one of my favorite singles of ’06). This brought me some mad lol’s, I’ll tell you what.

MP3 Penny on a Train Track

Dirty on Purpose – Car No Driver

This late addition to the list was suggested by Frank at Chromewaves, and I think I can safely say that it’s one of the best uses of time-lapse videography I’ve set my eyes on. The video starts out with a boy playing piano in the middle of an empty field and then goes on to show a bunch of red-jacketed construction workers building a giant trebuchet (medieval catapult) to launch the piano. Are they helped out by four dancing girls in red dresses? Of course they are!