Thursday, October 8, 2009

Two videos for the morning: The Music Machine and Times New Viking.

Lou Barlow is the guest editor over at Magnet Magazine this week, likely in honor of the release of his new solo album (as opposed to simply due to the fact that he is awesome).

Yesterday, he posted an explanation of his favorite band of the 60s being the Music Machine. After seeing them in action - the video is below - I am blown away. The whole "one black glove" thing freaks me out a little though. 

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While Lou can't really be blamed for Times New Viking, at least not that I know of, I figured this was a good time to also post their first video video ever. It's for the band's new single, "No Time, No Hope."

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Posted via email from Stephen Feller

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Two covers and some solid rock: the zip-mix hits week 6.

There's no reason that I put two covers at the beginning of this other than they are damn good. Really, I didn't even sequence it this week - this is the order I added them in iTunes. Makes for a nice hop all over the place.

Mike Doughty - "Casper The Friendly Ghost"

For whatever reason, Doughty decided to do this classic Daniel Johnston track on his latest solo slab, Sad Man Happy Man. It sounds more innocent than the original, but that's probably because every time I hear the original all I can think of is Casper raping Jenny at the end of "Kids." 

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "The Hardest Button to Button (live)"

I don't know what this is all about, but I like it. BRMC never got enough attention for being a solid, feedbacky rock band. That's always the case though. There's some other stuff to download here. Big ups to the White Stripes for writing great songs too.

Horse The Band - "The Failure of All Things"

It started with the video for "Shapeshift." Then I started reading the obnoxious bullshit they write about themselves on the Internet. Now I can't get enough of their ugly faces. This is noise-metal at it's best. They scream, they sing, they've got electronics and they bash the hell out of their instruments. When I play Your Life Choices Catch Up With You while sitting at my desk in the office, people stay away and I get work done. Maybe if I play it in the car I-95 will part like the Red Sea.

Spiral Stairs - "True Love"

This is a band I can listen to on repeat at any point in the day. But then, I would have expected no less from Pavement co-founder Scott Kannberg. That should tell you all you need to know.

Sloan - "Take It Upon Yourself"

I struggled over whether to include this or not. It's another great song from Canada's most melodically consistently toe-tappingly pleasant sometimes Beatles-like rock band. But they're giving it away for free at their Web site in exchange for your email address. Which means if you're not already a fan you'll never hear it... so here it is. They sound a little like Spoon this time out but hot damn is this band always happy and good. 

Beastie Boys - "Peanut Butter and Jelly"

Yesterday I posted two tracks from disc 2 of the Hello Nasty reissue. Today, I figured why not throw one more out there. "Peanut Butter and Jelly" was the b-side on the "Intergalactic" 7-inch. It's a jazzy little Beasties ditty with some talking over it, and is as quality now as it was in 1998. Take that for what whatever you want - I never stopped listening to it.

There's a lot of good punk happening in New Jersey these days, which is where this three-piece is from. Hard-charging, spitty and full of attitude, this track is from their album Power Move. 

Built to Spill - "Plantin' Seeds"

Never been a huge Built to Spill fan, this album is growing on me though. I may even have enough thoughts on it to write a longer review later in the week. This song in particular is a bit of Tom Petty, if he were a soft-spoken indie introvert who can play guitar, of course. That was my first thought on this song. Not sure if I still believe it, but I'm telling everybody, so I must on some level.

Posted via email from Stephen Feller

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Forget the game, what can I pay for the DJ Hero tracklist?

DJ Hero tracklist announced in full

http://stuff.tv/blogs/gaming/archive/2009/10/06/dj-hero-tracklist-announced-in-full.aspx

New remixes and ridiculous mashups? Lots of classics that nobody even talks about any more? Hello, Bell Biv Devoe, where have you been? (You're not gonna dog "Poison," are you?)

Seriously, I don't care about the game. Just send me a zip file with the music, hit my bank account and I'll be happy.

Posted via email from Stephen Feller

Thom Yorke has a band. And it's not Radiohead.

Radiohead has been hailed as the saviors of music pretty regularly for the last decade. If they were an armed force, Thom Yorke would be their general or something. He recently decided to add a second army to his command. No, I have no idea what I'm talking about. And yes, I realize I've taken a really bad metaphor far beyond its usefulness.

Point being, Yorke is amazing and he got a superstar band together that includes Flea, Nigel Godrich, superdrummer Joey Waronker (Beck and others) and percussionist Mauro Refosco to play his solo stuff. They played L.A., and I was not there. But a lot of people have posted video and audio from the show - and it is effing great.

He played four new/unreleased songs, a couple of Radiohead songs and most of The Eraser.

You Ain't No Picasso has the four previously unreleased/unheard Radiohead (but not played by Radiohead) tracks for download: http://bit.ly/Htg71

Kingblind collected video of nearly every track played: http://bit.ly/JYAVd

And here are some more statements about the show:

Rolling Stone: http://bit.ly/4pcWoU
Stereogum: http://bit.ly/FITzt

You can also buy the new Thom Yorke EP from Amazon here: http://bit.ly/zJL9I

Posted via email from Stephen Feller

Monday, October 5, 2009

Woo Hello Nasty reissue. Am I excited enough?

The Beastie Boys complete their remaster project this month with the repackage of 1998's Hello Nasty.

The album is still good: "Intergalactic," "Negotiation Limerick File," "Remote Control," "Just A Test," and everything else, including the mellow vocal and non-vocal tracks. This was the move away from the double-shot style of Check Your Head and Ill Communication. Mix Master Mike injected a new sense of adventurism to the Boys at a time when organic was going out and bleepy, sampled exploration was coming in.

With the remastered album is a second disc of remixes, b-sides and unreleased selections. Really, it's as though they've thrown back in the jazz and instrumental stuff they recorded during this period and sequenced it with some of the album's best remixes and studio chatting and fuckery. Aside from a few though selections, though, it's mostly stuff that could have been left on the shelf.

Look, there's got to be better stuff that they're holding back. It just feels, well, nonessential. Or maybe that's just me hoping that when I turn 60 and they're, um, way older, there will a huge box set of mp3s that just, like, "remember when these guys were really, really sick. Here's some stuff they never let you have."

Your need for this new version of Hello Nasty probably depends on the level of love you've got for the Beasties. Which kind of makes it essential anyway now that I think about it.

The Move by Beastie Boys  
Download now or listen on posterous
1-02 The Move.mp3 (5215 KB)

Piano Jam by Beastie Boys  
Download now or listen on posterous
2-11 Piano Jam.mp3 (2531 KB)

The Negotiation Limerick File (The 41 Small Star Remix) by Beastie Boys  
Download now or listen on posterous
2-13 The Negotiation Limerick File (The 41 Small Star Remix).mp3 (3636 KB)

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Rob Zombie chewing on some new songs.

  
Download now or listen on posterous
Sick Bubblegum.mp3 (3440 KB)

I hear "Living Dead Girl" on the radio at least once a day. The new Rob Zombie song - "Sick Bubblegum" - is way, way better, even if the whole bubblegum thing is completely stupid. This being the lead single from "Hellbilly Deluxe II," I hope it bodes well for the album.

The chorus to the song is "rot mother f*cker/rot mother f*cker/rot mother f*cker/ yeah." John 5's guitars sound like they are screaming from the depths of hell. Zombie sounds mean on here for the first time in, what, a decade? It's relatively vapid, but everything about this song is a step up.

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Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Roots have something for you to watch.

I can't get enough of The Roots. The new album, How I Got Over, is due out this month. Here's the video for first single and title track "How I Got Over."