Four Songs to Listen to Forthwith - 08/12/10

Flying Lotus has been around the experimental electronic scene for a few years. One of the major things that set him apart is he blends and has influences from jazz and hip hop. He adds sounds from many different places, samples and random recordings. Listen closely and you'll hear some remixed sounds from video games. This song, And the World Laughs With You is especially trippy. It seems to fly through and is over before you know it. Thom Yorke of Radiohead collaborated with him on this track. If you liked this, be sure to check out the rest of the album which came out in May. I really liked the execution of after effects on this fan made video, the worn look fits in nicely.

This song is by a fantastic Christian singer, Plumb. Her real name is Tiffany Lee and she lives in a nice house in the suburbs with her husband and three kids. Certainly not the typical artist featured here. It was recommended (and the next one) by my good friend and cousin, Chrissy. Congratulations to her and Drew on their wedding coming up in a few weeks. This song, Only You (Blush), is put together really simply. There’s a lot of yearning in this song, can’t you just picture her singing this with her eyes closed, palms facing out? “I want another kiss that’s always new. I want to be in love with only you.”

There’s nothing inherently wrong with becoming famous. There’s no direct connection to selling lots of records and suddenly your music will become less original, but there is something special about a band’s first album. It’s made before the band knows that this is how they’ll be remembered and this is how they will make a living. The album and songs are made to share with fans or as a strange experiment to see where their crazy dreams will take them. The Counting Crows are phenomenal, they started off strong with their first album, they’ve made many great songs since then, and are still together. For me, I can hear something special in their first album, a vulnerability that many bands have in the music. It can seem like it’s just the luck of the draw at this level, what bands will become huge, and which will remain tiny. The Counting Crows deserve their success, they’re entertaining and relentless in promoting of other artists. I hope you enjoy a sweet song called Round Here, a story inspired by one of the many troubled women singer Adam Duritz comes across. “She walks along the edge of where the ocean meets the land. Just like she’s walking on a wire.”

Gold Panda are an instrumental electronic group. They’re almost dubstep, not dance music, they love to mess with you or maybe they’re honestly experimenting. I can’t tell the difference with these guys, I know little about them. They have no wikipage, or decent bio anywhere. I’ve only seen them talked about at Pitchfork. They had a song in Pitchfork’s 2009 top 100 list (something I’ve listened through a lot) This song just showed up this week I like the sound and would love for them to have more fans. There’s also this fancy new embedded player to tryout. So here’s Snow and Taxis.

Snow & Taxis by Gold Panda

Four Songs to Listen To - 08/03/10

I started listening to this girl, Jessica Grace, about a week ago. I instantly liked her because she reminds of my good friend Meredith from The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter. I dig singer songwriters. There’s something very natural and easy to like about this genre. Jess’s song “What Is It In You” exemplifies these qualities. The song comes out a little forced at times, like she’s trying harder than she needs to. The simple acoustic and soft snare taps come on and off elegantly. There are feel good familiar lyrics like “What is it in you? That I can’t find in myself?” that really make the comparison to Alanis Morriset easy, but I’m guessing she’s tired of hearing that.

Tappa Tappa Tappa Chinga Ching! This is a very satisfying song. Ramadanman - Don't Change for Me. It’s got lots of breaks, something I like in my instrumentals. The sound starts off acoustic and natural, then gets mixed up heavily after a minute. I don’t know and can't imagine what the feeling it’s trying to express is. Everytime I listen to this track I feel something different. It’s smooth, yet a little rough around the edges. What you make of it will probably depend on what mood you’re in right now. Hope you feel like some buttery dubstep.

I saw this song by Pretty Reckless, I followed up and checked out this group and was floored by there sound. It’s straight up female lead rock. This song kicks ass, solid melody, lyrics, clear and well produced. I’ve never heard of them but the youtube link shows three quarters of a million plays, so naturally I though maybe Rachel has already heard of them. I didn’t want to look around all the blogs pages, it’s getting kind of big now after a few months. I put up a list of topics in the right column to make going back or find a band you like easier. For me, it’s keeping me from doing repeats.
Anyways, this band, Pretty Reckless. Just started the band about a year, all pretty young. They released an EP about a month ago, their first studio album comes out at the end of August. I’m ahead of the curve on this one. Check out this single that they put out in May called “Make Me Wanna Die”

A bit of nostalgia and falling back a killer song that everyone should know and like. Head Automatica is a band/project by the singer of an experimental hardcore band to pursue some more pop and electronic. They released a couple solid albums in 2004 and 2006, their last album has apparently been in limbo since last year. Let’s hope we can hear more about them soon. This song is fun rock, it’s energetic and a little hard, but with a sweet easy to access message. Very catchy and listen to it enough you won’t forget it with a little tune in your head at strange times. Apparently they don’t like youtube with all the actual videos being taken down. All the existing copies are just lyrics, not that I don’t love those fan made videos, I just really want to show the full official videos whenever possible. Let’s see how the MTV embedding works out... Oh look extra links along with the video, no thanks.