[stream] M.I.A: “Bring the Noize”

June 19th, 2013 by Matt

I’m still catching up on things I missed over the weekend and the start of this week. Timezones, redeye flights and weddling partying will really knock your schedule out of whack. Luckily there are a lot of fun surprises waiting for me, like this new track from M.I.A’s upcoming album. I’ll admit that I was really not expecting much from her next album. Her last album didn’t grab me and lately she’s seemed more concerned with the fringe elements of being a musician rather than focusing on turning out good music. But a few seconds into “Bring the Noize” and I felt like the old M.I.A was back. This floods me with memories of listening to her first record. It’s smart production that lets her cutting delivery slice you to ribbons. Bring on the full length!

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Portugal. The Man cover “Day Man,” guest-star in video with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia cast

June 18th, 2013 by Matt

Portugal. The Man have been having a lot of fun since their new album Evil Friends hit stores. The latest bit of their romp was filming a video with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Glenn Howerton and then paying tribute by covering IASIP’s classic track “Dayman” Check out both videos below

Portugal. The Man and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in “Eternal High Five”

Portugal. The Man cover “Dayman” live at Bonnaroo

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Download the new Beastie Boys / Beatles mashup album by The Beastles, watch a video for “Ill Submarine”

June 14th, 2013 by Matt

The Beastles, that amazing Beatles/Beastie Boys mashup project by dj bc, have released a third full album of high-energy jams. Below you can find the video for the title track “Ill Submarine.” Download the full new album and two more at The Beastles’ website.

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[video] Lumineers cover Talking Heads’ “This Must Be The Place”

June 12th, 2013 by Matt

I know a few of you are probably sick of The Lumineers after hearing them on the radio all last year. Personally I’m ready for more. So if you’re similarly unbothered by their ubiquity, here’s something to be excited about: a cover of the Talking Heads’ “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)” on Jimmy Fallon.

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[video] Grouplove: “Ways to Go”

June 11th, 2013 by Matt

Grouplove have a North Korean-inspired video for their new song “Ways to Go.” The track’s off their upcoming album Spreading Rumours, out 9/17. It’s a great, upbeat song with some fun male/female vocal trade-off.

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[videos] Hanni El Khatib: “Family” & “Penny”

June 10th, 2013 by Matt

I’ve been increasingly taken in by Hanni El Khatib’s Head in the Dirt in the past few weeks. You’ll probably read White Stripes comparisons any time his name is mentioned, but there’s also a strong similarity to The Heavy on some of the non-singles. And as a fan of both groups, this was right up my alley. Mix that in with production by Dan Auerbach and you’ve got a great summer record.

Below you can find the NSFW video for “Family” and the fairly SFW video for “Penny.” Both are great tracks, but I’d highly suggest checking out the full album. Not a bad track on it.

Hanni El Khatib: “Family” (NSFW)

Henni El Khatib: “Penny”

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Cayucas :: the YANP Interview

June 10th, 2013 by Matt

Two years ago I did an interview with Zach Yudin of Oregon Bike Trails. Now he’s changed his band name, written a whole slew of amazing new songs and released them on the album Bigfoot, out now on Secretly Canadian. I was excited to check in with Zach to see how the past two years have changed him and what the future holds for his band.

Zach Yudin of Cayucas :: the YANP Interview

YANP: As a longtime fan, I’ll start at the most obvious spot: your band name changed since we first heard you as Oregon Bike Trails. What made you pick Cayucas when you decided to rename yourself?

Zach Yudin (Cayucas): I wasn’t planning on changing it, a couple people had suggested that OBT wasn’t really the best band name. It was a name that I had come up with before recording any music, so it felt a little disjointed. The record label suggested Cayucas, which was a song title at the time. I thought about it and liked it.

When you were initially writing and recording under the OBT name, how were you recording back then?

I was sampling vinyl/cds, doing a lot of looping and recording vocals in my bedroom. Also, adding some instrumentation on top.

Did you have to recreate any samples for this release?

A little bit, some drum ideas & bass lines but for the most part not really.

How were the sessions recording this album different? Did you have the band already set when recording?

Well my brother & I went into the studio to record the album in 10 days, with the intention of doing 1 song/day. We had lots of new songs that were just ideas written on guitar/piano so with the help of Richard Swift (producer) we were able to take these ideas and turn them into full songs. He actually helped record a lot of the parts on guitar/bass/keys etc., but it was just me & my brother at first. The band came in after the album was recorded.

What was easier/harder about working with a others to record this album compared to recording by yourself?

A little bit. I had less control I guess, but the overall process was easier because we would finish a song quickly and move to the next, where as I tend to spend weeks writing songs and complicating things.

“High School Lover” got a really fun music video earlier this year. What was the conception and filming of a music video like?

Well, Cameron Dutra was the director and he really wanted to use this glitch effect he’d been working on for a long time. He was actually going to use it in the Foxygen video he shot, but it didn’t fit. So he showed it to me & I thought it looked great w/ the High School Lover track. We shot it all in 1 day at a sound stage in downtown Los Angeles & had a lot of fun dancing around, playing instruments. After he added lots of stop-motion, as well as cartoony scribbles tying in the high school story.

What was the process like assembling a live band? When did everyone fall into place? How extensively have you toured together?

I ended up putting the band together last September, over the course of about 1 month. I reached out to lots of people & things came together nicely. We’ve been playing non-stop since last October, so 7-8 months.

The production on “Bigfoot” really makes that song. It feels like every instrument and vocal melody comes in and out of focus with a part that’ll hook your brain. What was it like taking that from your notepad to the final version?

That was an idea I had that I wrote on piano, that I wanted to turn into a sort of simple reverb-y chant. Once in the studio Richard started recording with a Moog and the song took a new direction. It started to feel like a hip-hop beat, & I just wanted to match the vibe with the vocal and end the song big.

All of your songs (even the slow one) feel very carefree. Do you ever write when feeling uptight or stressed, or do you find that you have to be similarly relaxed as your songs are?

Well, I think I usually write when I’m in a relaxed state, when I’m stressed I’m usually dealing with a stressful situation (ha). But to me the songs aren’t carefree, though I realize they do come across that way.

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Weekly Comedy Podcast Highlight: Josh Homme on Nerdist

June 9th, 2013 by Matt

Normally I have to go back through the week’s podcasts to pick one to highlight on Sunday morning. This week I knew my favorite before I even sat down. Nerdist pulled in a great interview with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. Homme is hilarious and arrived armed with a lifetime of great stories. What’s it like to sleep in a room the night after GG Allin and his band stayed there? Why did Homme keep running into Journey’s Steve Perry? All this and more will be revealed in this exciting interview!

Josh Homme on Nerdist

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[stream] Lorde: “Tennis Court” & “Swingin’ Party” (the Replacements cover)

June 5th, 2013 by Matt

The package I ordered from Amazon is set to arrive a day early. Also arriving a day early (to me) is New Zealand artist Lorde’s two new tracks. She said this morning that she’d release them “tomorrow;” turns out tomorrow in NZ is this evening in America. She’s my favorite new artist, and “Tennis Court” shows exactly why: production, powerful delivery and a strong songwriting identity.

“Tennis Court” is another single-worthy track from a girl who has only seven songs out for public consumption. It’s a heartfelt, reflective song from a girl who’s about to blow up in a major way. So when she sings that she’s about to be “getting on [her] first plane” and look down on her city “like they do in space,” it feels genuine in a beautiful way. Also available is a cover of the Replacements’ “Swingin’ Party.” Before she made it available, she tweeted that the song she covered was was two years older than she is. Great to know she’s young, but still drawing from a deep well.

Lorde: “Tennis Court”

Lorde: “Swingin’ Party” (the Replacements)

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