The Naked and Live

Released earlier today, this video "trailer" from The Naked and Famous looks as if they will be releasing a live DVD of their last tour: Passive Me, Aggressive You. Not much is said about what the DVD will contain, but it looks to be titled One Temporary Escape, and the release date is slated for March 18th, 2013. One Temporary Escape will be available for free, from the band's website (located here).

Not Superjail!

EDIT 3/6/13: Just found out that "Tiny Anthem" is their second video! Check out the video for "Glow" here.
 The M Machine drop their first full length video after two teasers for each half of Metropolis. The first teaser, for what became Metropolis Pt. I, can be seen (here), and the teaser for Metropolis Pt. II, (here). This video for "Tiny Anthem" was put together by a great trio of artists, Chet Knebel, who's work is easily recognizable if you've seen Ugly Americans, or Superjail! directed as did Hal Lee, who's got a blogspot with some drawings right (here), and Christopher Lawrence Blackstock, did the character designing. The M Machine are signed to Skrillex's label, OWSLA, and their first ep, was the 14th release from the record label. Metropolis Pt. II, their second ep, was just released on the 19th of this month, and was the 29th release from OWSLA. The M Machine hails from San Fransisco, and consists of three members, Ben Swardlick, Eric Luttrel, and Andy Coenen. Check out the video for their song "Tiny Anthem" below!

~ Swinson

Tilda Swinson stars as David Bowie's wife in this Floria Sigismondi directed video for "The Stars (Are Our Tonight)" This is Floria's third video she has directed for Bowie, the others being "Little Wonder" in 1996, and "Dead Man Walking" in 1997. You may recognize Floria's trademark "twitchiness" from other music videos in the past, as she's worked with quite the lineup of artists. Amon Tobin, Bjork, Sigur Ros, and Marilyn Manson, just to name a few. This is the second video to be released from David Bowie's first album in 10 years entitled, The Next Day. Tony Visconti, who produced the album, has, like Floria worked with a number of great musicians as well, including T.Rex, Sparks, Iggy Pop, Thin Lizzy, Rick Wakeman, The Moody Blues, Morrissey, and Kaiser Cheifs. This is the twelfth album he has produced for Bowie, others include Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold the World, David Live, Young Americans, Low, Stage, "Heroes", Lodger, Scary Monsters, Heathen, and Reality. So here it is, "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" by David Bowie!

Bzzzzzt!

Yeah Yeah Yeah's are back with a great track featuring a full choir. "Sacrilege" doesn't have a video yet, but the track has been released and their new album Mosquito (Check out this amazing album art for it) will be dropping April 16th. The album features a lineup of amazing people working with them, including one track produced by James Murphy! Check out the David Andrew Sitek and Nick Launay produced track "Sacrilege" below.

Too Little, Too Late

Didn't know there was a new Ramona Falls video! I'm so stoked to see them tonight. I hear they're great live. I've also never been to the venue where it's being held, so I'm looking forward to that.

Here's their first video. I love the style and story of it.

And their second. Sad and beautiful. 

Leading up to...

Can you say Crescendo?

Tomorrow?

I'm still not sure, are you?

Vegetable Medley

So this guy does some pretty rad stuff that I know nothing about and therefore can't really explain. All I can say is it's pretty amazing, and turns out to be quite the cover of Massive Attack's "Teardrop." Check it out!

Team Δ

Yay mathrock! Delta Sleep is back with a new video. It's cheesy, it's fun, and it's an excellent track. Delta Sleep currently only have an ep, Delta Sleep EP, but this track is off their second ep, Management, which is set for release sometime this year (hopefully soon!). Check out the video below!

ps. There's a person in a gorilla suit. It should have been me.

Skylarking

BT does it again. Epic epicness. Love. Emotion. 11 minutes of pure fucking trance bliss.

Judge, Jury, and AMOK

Atoms for Peace's full album AMOK was released today on their website to be streamed and purchased. It leaked a while ago, but had it's official release and the masses have a lot to say about it. "It's too Radiohead" or "There's not enough bass-lines that scream Flea." Thom and Nigel also got together today and partook in an "AMA" on reddit today where I learned a lot about stuff they are working on, and I also learned that Thom probably doesn't know how to use a keyboard. Haha. He says some strange things sometimes. I knew the man was nuts, but... srsly. I think the album is fantastic, and if you like anything Thom Yorke, I recommend you check it out.

Genrebending

Here's a great track from Junius. Some metal-gaze if you will. I know I haven't really posted much of anything outside of edm, some indie stuff, and a few rock tracks, but I do listen to pretty much everything. So here's a nice melodic metal track for you to enjoy. Bro, do you even mosh?

Feed Fighters

How the fuck did I not know this existed until tonight? Such an amazing pair to work together! 

Here's an excellent little remix too!

In the Nick of Time

I had the privilege of seeing this performed live the other night at Tin Can Ale House. Light Vision's set was absolutely fantastic and incorporated not just music, but visual/performance art as well. Unfortunately it was Light Vision's last set here in San Diego for the foreseeable future as he is evidently packing up and shipping off to New York. Glad I was able to catch this man at work before he left.

Happy Valentine's Day: Couples Edition

62 years of marriage. 'Nuff said.

Happy Valentine's Day: Singles Edition

Thank you, The xx. This is perfect right now. I'm not really into Beyonce, but this cover is great, and it made me go back and check out the original... still not into it. But srsly... The xx is just always full of emotion. 

The only sentiment in this song that puts me off is the line "But if I got with you, could it feel the same?" because it could never feel the same, and I wouldn't want it to. If only you were a fixer like me.

SwingHouseStep?

Really loving this electro-swing track from JFB. It's got some dubsteppyness to it which I haven't really heard in an electro-swing/swinghouse track yet, and I think it goes pretty damn well. Though, since I haven't heard any other tracks like this, I don't know that there isn't any other tracks that pull it off better. Do you know of any? What do you think of this track?

Tacos and Drugs Tuesday

Don't have a lot of time to post today, on my way out to see Mystery Cave and Light Vision perform at Tin Can Ale House. Anyway, a new friend just made me aware of this little song though, evidently from Workaholics, but further along in the show than I am. Admittedly  I'm not very far in. I considered posting about the Harlem Shake, but since there are so many videos for that, I figured I'd wait till I have more time and can find a bunch of them for you. Maybe tomorrow, maybe at the end of the week. We'll see. For now enjoy some Tacos and Drugs.

Chinese Democracy?

Mr. Benjamin Gibbard has sworn up and down there would be no new Postal Service material made, despite the band reuniting for a tour ten years after splitting up. He is a horrible liar. I present to you, here and now, new Postal Service, featuring Jenny Lewis!

Whether or not we will get a full album, just an ep, or just this single is yet to be determined, but with as great as this track is, I'm hopeful for a whole new album. Taking me back to my early early 20's here! Crazy! For now the song (and one other new track, also featuring Jenny Lewis) will be featured on the Ten Year Anniversary Deluxe re-issue of Postal Service's Give Up which was released just two days ago, 2/9/13.

Epic Bowie

Beck reinvents David Bowie's classic "Sound and Vision" in the most epic fashion ever. We're talking Beck and 160 plus musicians. Pitchfork lists them as the "Dap-Kings, a string orchestra, a gamelan ensemble, members of the USC marching band, a Peruvian charango group, choirs, guitarists, a musical saw player, a harpist, and a Theramin player. Beck's dad David Campbell was the conductor." This is huge. Like way huge. Let's take a three and a half minute song, turn it into a ten minute song, and make it as awesome as possible. Of course, watching this video with my friends earlier lead into talks of Scientology, wealth, and fame. Would Beck be as famous as he is if he weren't a Scientologist? Who knows. But the fact remains. The man is a musical genious. Whether it was his upbringing, or just a natural talent. The performance was recorded in 360 degrees of sound and video. So if you have a nice surround sound set-up, or some amazing headphones, just you wait till the rips of surround sound recordings of this start spreading. Also, invite me over so I can check it out. My two speakers here have great sound, but they're no surround sound. Wish I could have been there for the full effect. Check out the video below!

Gimme Full, Gimme Fire, Gimme Full of Fire!

The Knife are back, with a new epic track and it's looking like the whole new album is going to be full of amazing stuff like this. I didn't post this song right away, but I probably should have. There's just been so much new stuff lately that I struggle with what I should post on a day to day basis. This should have taken the place of some older things that I've posted, but oh well, you get it now at least. This track, "Full of Fire" is a far-cry from any tracks we've heard from The Knife thus far, but I feel like it isn't a far stretch from where they've been. It wasn't a turn I saw them taking, but now that they've taken it, it makes sense. I'm very very interested in hearing the rest of the album, which will be released April 8th, and titled Shaking the Habitual. This song is ten minutes long, not a crazy length, but still makes for quite the epic. And the video is highly fascinating and keeps you thinking the whole way through.

What's with the girl?

Flaming Lips released this pretty normal cover of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody today. They didn't stray too far from the original, surprising to me, especially after hearing a lot of their other covers. They add a little of their flavor to this track but stick pretty close to the original song. Do you like covers that change the song a lot, or do you like when artists don't change the song a lot?

Sing For Me

Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree has a solo album coming out February 25th. Today the first video for it, "The Raven that Refused to Sing" was released, but has unfortunately not made it's way to youtube on an official Steven Wilson account, or the Porcupine Tree account, so odds are this video may be removed. I'd have posted the video Steven Wilson's facebook account posted, but it was from an article on yahoo, and they seem to have removed the video themselves. At any rate, the video is pretty sad, the song too a bit, but it's definitely a great track. Check it out!

POWERGLOVE!

I've always loved Imogen Heap, though admittedly I didn't hear her until she made the Frou Frou album and was featured on the soundtrack for Garden State (One of the best soundtracks ever made). But after I discovered her, I went back through her catalog and have been checking out all the new stuff along the way. Imogen Heap has always been a bit weird/quirky/silly and I love that about her, and it comes off in her music as well. She's very inventive, and likes to push the envelope. Well, she's done it again with the help of some very fascinating work courtesy of someone she met an the MIT Media Lab, a Kinect, and Ableton live. In this video she does a lot of explaining what the gloves can do (0:00 – 7:20), and then demos them for a bit (7:20 – 13:20) before finally playing a song that she wrote specifically for them (13:20 – 19:56). I've seen Imogen Heap in concert before, but I'd really really love to see her tour with this tech!

Yes, No, Yes, Yes, No, No, No, Yes, No, YES YES YES!

Really digging this Fake Blood track "Yes/No" that I found yesterday. The song is super catchy, and the video flows really well with the song, not to mention that the video features a pretty damn talented spray paint artist. I also love red, black, and white, which pretty much the whole video is, so, YAY favorite color schemes!

Keith Haring?

Jack Beats' track "War" features Diplo, and Example, and has a very Keith Haring-esque video that's slightly trippy, slightly dancy, and 100% fun. Check it out below!

Pulling You Out of the Comfort Zone

Daniel Snaith aka Manitoba, then Caribou, now has another moniker, Daphni. Daphni is a more down-tempo, less glitchy, lyricsless, form of Caribou. There aren't any traditional music videos released, and I don't know if any will be, but there are a number of videos that are just colorful ambient videos, some featuring text, one scrolling the word "daphni" repeated over and over. Each track has a sound that I find somewhat harsh and off-putting, but after a few listens I realized that just very well might have been what he was going for. Removing that harsh sound from the track leaves it pretty dull, and repetitive. I think I'd still like the track if the harsh tones were removed, but far less. The sound takes you out of your comfort zone, but improves the track by giving it a distinct sound when the rest of the track is pretty generic. Can you hear what I'm talking about? Is that harsh sound off-putting to you, or do you think it brings the track together? Here's a couple videos to check out.

Daphni - "Pairs"

Daphni - "Long"

Daphni - "Light"

Who-ra-tron? Who-oh-ra-tron? Huh-oh-ra-tron? Whore-a-tron?

Tonight some friends and I were taking turns playing music videos for each other, and Connie suggested we check out Huoratron, who she found by sifting through the Coachella lineup artists. I haven't really found out much about the group, other than it's just one person from Finland. The music is chaotic-noisy-techno kinda stuff, and sometimes gets a bit chiptune-like. The first video here is for the track "Cryptocracy" which is the video that the Coachella website links to.

This second video seems like it's Huoratron's most successful/popular video, "Corporate Occult." It is highly graphic, so def NSFW. It goes from highly sexual to highly horror-filled about half way through the video. You can bet your ass that I will be somewhere in the crowd dancing my ass off to this, possibly looking like I am having a seizure. Well, potentially dancing... here's to hoping Huoratron isn't playing at 1pm in 104 degree weather, cuz fuck that.

More like Delta

The band ∆ (pronounced "Alt-J" don't ask me how, as that's the symbol for Delta) gained my attention sometime last year with the track "Breezeblocks", and lately I can't get enough of them. They are performing at Coachella this year, and I'm very very excited to see them. So excited that I'm gonna give you three videos from them! The first is "Breezeblocks", which already mentioned, was the first track I heard from them. The video was released in March of last year, though I'm not sure when I first saw/heard it.

The second video is a newer video than "Breezeblocks", and is titled "Tessellate" it was released in July last year, and didn't seem to receive as much acclaim as "Breezeblocks" but is still a spectacular recording, and has a well directed video.

The third video, released towards the end of the year is for the track "Fitzpleasure." The track is just perfectly produced, and the bass rumbling makes me and my pants so so happy (as those of you who know me know that bass makes me and my pants happy). I really can't wait to dance to these tracks live on the polo fields this summer!