Posted by Nick Meador on Mar 22, 2010 in MP3s, News, Records
Caribou’s new album Swim arrives in the U.S. on April 20 — but I’ve got a sneak preview for the MusicEdge Blog! Here’s the track “Lalibela”:
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I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited! It’s quite a departure from Dan Snaith’s earlier work under this name and, previously, as Manitoba. I wasn’t as thrilled by Andorra, his 2007 LP that had everyone in a tizzy.
Actually, if I were to compare this to any Caribou album, it would be 2001’s Start Breaking My Heart. Still, that was IDM with a strong percussion base. Swim is a more disco-centric affair, but with a scope that seems almost futuristic. In that way it’s a progression beyond the apparent influences like DFA and even Erlend Oye.
Snaith himself said it would be dance music that sounded like it was made with water. And look at that exquisite cover design! I couldn’t stop myself from posting it at full size. It’ll likely be among the best album artwork we see in 2010.
Dan Snaith is from Dundas, Ontario, yet somehow Caribou’s current European tour will be followed by a North American tour — that is, a tour that will snake through the U.S., Mexico and Canada — without a single stop in Michigan. It’s sad — Caribou’s live show has, in my mind, always been more interesting than the studio recordings, with two drummers and synchronized animation.
Maybe he’ll show up on the Lollapalooza 2010 line-up, which should be announced by late April or early May!
Ahhh…spring. No place comes alive in March like East Lansing. Students go out into the median of a boulevard and play frisbee! Or they go sit by the Red Cedar River to do some reading or watch the ducks bathe. St. Patrick’s Day marks the time to begin sitting on your porch and hosting barbecues for friends.
I don’t get that same feeling in Washtenaw County. The only change I noticed here was a much bigger afternoon crowd at the local coffee shop. Long-time readers of this blog will know that I pay a lot of attention to seasons — or at least, I used to. In a way I feel like people stop honoring seasonal shifts once they finish school. I think this contributes to (or is a reflection of) the zombie adult syndrome that’s widespread in modern society. Back around 2005 I started making seasonal mixtapes, and the tracks on my Spring Mix were arranged to come alive in much the same way that the season does. The first few songs are calm and darker (for cold, rainy days), and the last few are really spunky (for the sunny days that bridge into summer).
Posted by Nick Meador on Mar 5, 2010 in Features, MP3s
Phew, how does time pass so swiftly? Is it really the third month of 2010 already? Much of what I post on this blog lately reveals the connections I find between different kinds of music. I have a pretty wacky taste in music, which I attribute partly to the expansive forces of the Internet, and partly to my own multifarious personality. When I got to college in 2001, I really began to move away from the FM radio rock I was suckled on. That was thanks in part to the regular programming and evening shows on the Impact 89 FM, the college radio station at MSU.
My favorite show, “The Jazz Spectrum,” aired every Monday night from 8pm to midnight. Not only did it help me concentrate on homework, but it opened me up to the wonders of what some call America’s finest art form. But at some point after finishing my MA of journalism in 2008 (I went back to MSU after some time away), the Impact apparently canceled the show. Now their Monday evenings are occupied by “The Asian Invasion.” I only discovered this by accident, when attempting to listen to their online stream on a Monday not too long ago. I couldn’t find any explanation on their website, but I’m assuming that the host of the jazz program must have moved out of the area. To be honest, I was surprised at how long the show ran. I imagine the host might have started as a student, and then managed to stay in the Lansing area after graduation — which is a rare feat these days.
Posted by Nick Meador on Feb 11, 2010 in Features, MP3s
A couple weeks ago I began a short series looking at the current state of mash-up electronic music. Mash-up as a genre has probably existed since the beginning of the last decade. The earliest instance I’ve found was Soulwax, acting under their other name, 2 Many DJs. They released a ton of bootleg mixtapes that weren’t all that much different than what Girl Talk took so much credit for from 2006 on. In fact, some of the work Soulwax did was better, and they are commendable house producers aside from all that!
Posted by Nick Meador on Feb 5, 2010 in MP3s, News
Just a quick post tonight to let you know about the new MusicEdge Concert Calendar. For a few months I’ve been using Google Calendar to keep track of upcoming concerts. Then tonight I remembered that you can embed Google Calenders anywhere on the web, provided that you make them public so anyone can see the content. So I made a new page on this blog, with a new link that says “Concert Calendar” — LOOK UP AT THE TOP!
(click to enlarge)
It won’t contain every single upcoming show in Michigan, but it will definitely have every concert that I’m even remotely interested in. Most listings outside of Michigan will be music festivals, since people tend to drive up to 10 hours for those things. (Man, typing that reminds me that Rothbury isn’t happening in 2010. That still hasn’t fully hit me yet. What a sad thing though…)
Hello, hello! I’ve been very inconsistent on this blog lately, and for that I apologize. For the next month or so, you’ll see a mix of posts about the decade 2000-2009 (look in the tag list for “2000s Decade Wrap-Up”), the year 2009 (look for “2009 wrap-up”), and regular updates and analysis. I’ve already started on the decade posts with my 50 albums slideshow and the list of my favorite 200 albums. Now I’m going to set that stuff aside and discuss my favorite music of 2009.
First of all, you can use this player to scan some of my favorite songs of the year. Keep in mind that Project Playlist doesn’t have access to everything, so some are just songs from albums I enjoyed — not necessarily my absolute favorite tracks.
Posted by Nick Meador on Oct 26, 2009 in MP3s, News
Well 2009 refuses to let up in the New Release department, and my iTunes library is hunching under the weight of all the new additions. One pleasant surprise was the discovery that Easy Star All-Stars have released their third reggae remake album. If you’re not familiar with the group’s work, they’ve made a name for themselves with a reggae tribute album for both Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (which they called Dub Side of the Moon) and Radiohead’s OK Computer (which they called Radiodread).
Audio: “A Day In The Life” by Easy Star All-Stars
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After picking two of the most popular British albums of all time, it’s no wonder that they chose the Beatles for their third outing. Whether or not they selected the best Beatles album to transform into reggae is up for debate. I’d argue that the result could have been more gripping with Magical Mystery Tour or even Revolver. Regardless, I’m sure I’ll be blasting Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band next time I’m on a beach.
Part of the fun here lies in the fact that these albums aren’t completely terrible. After all, there are so many crappy tribute albums in the world, and so few that add anything worthwhile or stand on their own strength. I wrote a column in NOISE Magazine a year or two ago about Radiohead tribute albums. Yes, I did manage to find five different tributes to Thom Yorke & Co — but Radiodread was the best by far.
The best thing about the Pink Floyd one was that Easy Star had plenty of room to breathe, and that was true when taking on Radiohead, too. The songs from those albums aren’t too quick or too tightly arranged. The same can’t be said for Sgt. Pepper’s; it’s a buttoned-down British pop album at the core, no matter how groundbreaking it was. I think that aspect is responsible for the less experimental nature of the Easy Star version. There are two “extended dub mixes,” but otherwise there is minimal use of echoes and decorative noise — in other words, the stuff I like the most!
While I’m writing, I thought I would mention that I’m preparing a wrap-up of music from across the ten-year span of 2000-2009. I’ll have a list of my favorite 200 albums of the decade — hopefully including a multimedia feature with song clips and album art. Stay tuned!
Posted by Nick Meador on Oct 19, 2009 in MP3s, News
I feel dumb for not having written about Neon Indian yet. I should have done it back in August when I first heard about this Texas solo project. Now the indie music press are sounding the alarms every which way they can. I don’t know the name of the musician, despite every synopsis of the album implying that he’s been around before. I just know that he’s from Austin, TX, and he writes swirly electronic dream pop. Of course “dream pop” denotes something different than what’s actually going on here, because I’m describing a feeling, not a certain kind of sound.
But like I said, I heard the debut album Psychic Chasms at the end of August, even though it was only officially released last week. Although I don’t feel bad — this album is an absolutely perfect soundtrack for the bittersweet days at the end of summer. After a few casual listens, it mysteriously jumped to secure a spot in my top five favorite albums of the year. It’s catchy, it’s slightly heart-wrenching, and it’s very addictive.
Audio: “6669 (I Don’t Know If You Know)” by Neon Indian
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On the down side, it’s really, really short; there are only about 33 minutes to love. Between the quick running length and the unfinished feel of the songs, Chasms seems to be more of an introduction that a fully accomplished recording.Then again, Neon Indian is more an accomplishment of honing a specific sound than anything else. And he’s not the only one knee-deep in this business (I’ll have more on those artists soon. I’m not giving away any secrets just yet!).
It’s tempting to call this music nostalgic, but there are so many feelings and ideas crossing paths here that it deserves a more complicated description. The music is intentionally made to sound warped like a cassette tape that has seen too many flips in the stereo. I realize that many under the age of 23 probably haven’t experienced cassette tape playback. Any medium that relies on magnetic tape was fundamentally flawed, but in this age of digital sterilization, flaws seem more… lifelike.
Neon Indian certainly has antecedents in this decade, but the first artists that come to mind is Hall & Oates and Wham! Yeah, the cheesiest of cheesy soft rock from the late ’70s through the end of the ’80s (and you thought all ’80s styles had been revived…). Neon Indian actually evokes specific tracks from these artists, most notably “Last Christmas” from Wham!’s 1986 album Music From The Edge Of Heaven. And I hate to say that, because I really feel like this artist represents a step forward in lo-fi indie elecronica, especially of the American variety.
All throughout this decade, we’ve watched American (or North American…since I’m thinking of Toronto and Brooklyn) indie rock bands do alright, but still, scenes and styles around the world have flourished much more. I’m specifically referring to Sweden, France, and the U.K. And most of the good stuff in those places had at least some electronic component to the music. So now America has Flying Lotus doing the hyphy thing over in L.A., which represents a bridge to the U.K., since most of that sound is happening in London.
But Neon Indian may turn out to represent another American musical budding. The coolest name I’ve heard for it on the Internets is “New Weird America.” I mean, if I was an artist, I’d rather be described as that than “synth pop” or “psychedelic.” Those genres come with so much baggage. Of course “new weird america” was just a tag I saw attached to some artist on a music site somewhere (“chill wave” and “gvbcore” were among the others). But I like the idea that what used to be genres and subgenres are now just tags used to sort music online. They finally have some concrete purpose!
Audio: “That Was Just a Dream” by Cut Copy
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Getting back to the story… I mentioned that Neon Indian also seems to take after music from this decade. There is a short moment where Atlas Sound comes to mind on “I Should Have Taken Acid With You.” Otherwise the most distinct connection is to Cut Copy’s very underappreciated 2006 album Bright Like Neon Love. And trust me — the fact that the word “neon” was used by both of these artists is NOT a coincidence. They both create solar flares in your brain and light up parts of your heart you had tried to keep inactive. Wake them both up again (your brain and heart, that is) and kick ‘em into full gear. We’re heading into a new decade. This is about to get really interesting!
Neon Indian plays at the Magic Stick on October 28, but it’s now listed as a cafe show on their website. That means he’ll probably be playing in the pizza shop area on the main floor, in front of all the huge windows. I don’t know what they were thinking booking shows in that spot. It’s not a venue, nor should it ever be treated as one. Keep the music upstairs, dammit!
Posted by Nick Meador on Sep 24, 2009 in MP3s, News
Back in 2007 I told my friends that I could sense a tide change coming in the world of music. The indie rock revolution of the first half of the decade had ended. Now we’re in the middle of a sort of electronic revolution. Whether it’s mashup, disco house, indie electronic, dubsteb, glitchy techno, or ambient… the past year or two have seen an incredible amount of innovation as a result of musicians having access to today’s technology.
When I first wrote about Flying Lotus here, I focused on his relation to and inspiration from video game music. I also mentioned Crystal Castles, but they aren’t related to FlyLo by much else than that. Flying Lotus, on the other hand, has a whole array of musicians who seem to be heading in a similar direction. He’s at the glowing center of a bunch of musical hybrids and sub-genres that most people don’t even know about. You could call him experimental hip hop, or downbeat electronica, or hyphy, or wonky, or glitch hop, or…whatever. The point is, there are things happening in music right now that people don’t even have a name for. It’s all still up in the air.
Audio: “Space Ex (feat. LaNote)” by Blue Daisy
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Flying Lotus isn’t necessarily the best of these musicians, but he is somewhat of a leader. He seems to be at the front of the group charging forward at full speed. I probably first heard him during the Adult Swim promos, only to realize later who had written the music. He has his group Brainfeeder that organizes audio/visual event specatulars. He has a DJ Kicks album coming out around November. And his third full-length album should be available by Jan or Feb 2010!
He’s a big deal for a few reasons. First is the obvious boundary bending going on. There are elements mixing together from areas of music that usually stay pretty separate. Therefore it’s music that many different kinds of people can relate to — all the more so because it’s usually instrumental (with minimal vocal samples). The second reason is what the music stands for. It’s representative of a growth in consciousness happening among young adults today. It has something to do with the internet increasing our awareness of the world around us. It’s also related to the audio/visual culture we grew up in, mostly video games… but also animated films and shows. It’s also a reminder that MP3s are the inferior medium for listening to music. FlyLo sounds amazing on vinyl, but I’m sure a lossless sound format would do the music justice as well.
FlyLo is from the Valley, just north of L.A. And with Nosaj Thing and even those more deeply rooted in hip hop like Madlib also from that area, it makes it a representative for the range of styles. The other area acting as a hotbed for this is London. FlyLo is on Warp Records, a British label that specializes in experimental electronic music. They’ve also worked with Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, and a bunch of other groundbreaking-yet-mostly-unknown electronic artists.
Through the magic of Last.fm, I found another artist from this range called Blue Daisy. He’s only released one single so far containing “Space Ex (feat. LaNote)” and “The Fall.” The song “Space Ex” is one of my favorites from 2009. It’s got a very similar feel to FlyLo, with numerous layers of seemingly unrelated sound rubbing up against one another and having a sexy party. Like I said, one of my favorite things about this style of music is the absence of vocals. When you take that fevered ego out of the equation, it really makes things a lot more pleasant.
Audio: “The Fall” by Blue Daisy
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“Space Ex” does have vocals (sort of) by LaNote. I can’t really understand the words, and her singing warps in and out of the foreground. In fact none of the musical elements seem to stay in place during the song. And there’s a crazy attention paid to nuance and precision. The clicking percussion gets quiet and loud, the synths fade and cut back in. Some keyboard riff evokes a sense of Cyndi Lauper and The Goonies. It’s all so remarkably beautiful. Then “The Fall” comes on and it just gets better. This track is closer to dubsteb, but with a very tropical vibe that makes it danceable. The sandpaper scratches in the background make the outer sound feel warm and vibrant. Very, very nice.
This could lead to an even greater flowering of creative productivity in the world of music. I think it has something to do with a shift in goal and purpose for today’s musicians. The whole problem with the indie rock thing was that it was essentially aiming for the same goal as the crappy ’90s radio rock: getting signed on a major label, thus earning tenure for a while as a “professional” musician. Fuck that shit. Fuck Modest Mouse, fuck The Decemberists and fuck Death Cab for Cutie. They betrayed us when we believed in them. Now we know better than to put all our faith in one band. It’s about the music, not the fucking band. It’s also about art, and the second you become a salaried recording artist, you are forever disconnected from the world of art.
Posted by Nick Meador on Sep 17, 2009 in MP3s, News
Well, well…another fall semester has begun in the land of college. I hear they finally eliminated welcome week (or weekend) and made it a welcome Monday and Tuesday. That blows. I tried to come for welcome week…on August 22. I didn’t realize until more than a few beer cans were empty that I was a week early. But that’s what happens when you get old I guess. Things fall apart. You miss once-high-priority events like Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, and welcome week at MSU.
If you have no idea who I am or what the bleep I’m yapping about, my name is Nick Meador and I’m a 2008 grad of the masters of journalism program at MSU. I also went to MSU as an undergrad, in my former life as a scientist. Nowadays I hold down the fort in Ann Arbor, after the unknown forces of the universe led me here. (I assure you I do everything in my power to make blue and yellow bleed to green.)
During the summer I mostly wrote about music festivals. This year I was lucky enough to go to Lollapalooza, Rothbury, and the third day of Movement Detroit (or DEMF, as it’s more commonly known). You can find my coverage of those fests through a simple search on this blog. While the weather is colder, I tend to write more about new music releases. Last winter I hardly went to any concerts, but I plan on changing that this year. Although the only show I’ve been to in a while was Telefon Tel Aviv at the Blind Pig.
Getting back to new releases…there are plenty appearing in the last segment of 2009 that are worth getting excited about. I don’t even know where to start. So much has hit me in the past month. Well, I did just mention Telefon Tel Aviv…and although I didn’t know this when I saw them on September 8, they released a new album in February. I was actually pretty mad at myself for not knowing this. I usually at least listen to clips of a band’s new stuff before going to see them live. But in fact there was more I didn’t know about the band. They migrated north from New Orleans to Chicago after Katrina hit in 2005 (which, coincidentally, is exactly when I moved to Chicago). But more importantly, group member Charlie Cooper died in January 2009, “possibly (from) an accidental mix of sleeping pills and alcohol” (according to the band’s Wikipedia page).
Audio: “The Birds” by Telefon Tel Aviv
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I felt stupid because I didn’t learn any of this until arriving at the venue and opening that Wikipedia page on my phone. I felt stupid and I felt sad. I was expecting a flashy show, maybe including some extra musicians… like how Junior Boys bring a drummer with them on tour. What I got was the exact opposite: just Josh Eustis (the other original member) and fill-in man Fredo Nogueira standing on a totally undecorated stage with minimal equipment. There was barely even any lighting — just two dull white bulbs shining on the band from behind. My girlfriend was the first to point out that the band seemed to be mourning publicly. After all, that Wikipedia page claims that Eustis was totally unsure about the band’s future in January, but by March had declared that he would continue touring with Nogueira.
TTA has always produced music with sad overtones, but Cooper’s passing obviously makes that sentiment more palpable. Yet their music has always contained at least a sliver of optimism too, usually hidden between the intricate layers of sound. They’re arguably one of the best American indie electronic/techno acts of this decade, partially because of that specific tone. They seem like a band with a lot to say, but who are more interested in trying to convey emotions than thoughts. Even on their completely instrumental 2001 debut Fahrenheit Fair Enough, the band exuded melancholy more than most vocalists can by singing.
Looking back, I’d group them in with Radiohead, who were also experimenting with dark electronic music around that time. And then 2004’s Map Of What Is Effortless was a sort of coda to the chill out electronica mastered by Air in the earlier part of the decade. It came complete with soulful guest vocalists and lush production work, both of which constituted a progression for the band. Speaking of “best of the decade,” I wouldn’t hesitate to place “My Week Beats Your Year” on a list of the top tracks — not just electronica tracks, but all of them.
Audio: “You Are The Worst Thing In The World” by Telefon Tel Aviv
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The fact that I hadn’t heard about 2009’s Immolate Yourself until the night of the show could be a sign that it hasn’t made an impact. Or maybe they’ll just always be the kind of underground artist who makes diehard fans out of most people exposed to their music. After all, we music fans were completely swamped with new music over the past seven years or so. Any band who retained fans from one album to the next accomplished a feat of greatness. Immolate has it faults, but TTA has never released a flawless album.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that, while Immolate might not make a lot of top ten lists in 2009, it’s still very worthy of attention. Some of it does wander, yes…and it’s strange to hear Josh singing on pretty much every track after never hearing him provide vocals before. This was also a bit strange in the live setting — not to say that he can’t sing, but when he does so consistently, it inevitably draws the band closer to more prominent indie electronic groups with male vocalists and pop sensibilities. I’m referring to a rough stretch from Erlend Oye’s 2003 album Unrest to the 2006 Junior Boys album So This Is Goodbye. And this is ironic in a way, because Immolate was released on Ellen Allien’s label Bpitch Control, and Allien is (in my opinion) one of the hottest producers of straight-up techno in the world.
Still, I’m not so daring — or lazy — that I would call this album unsuccessful. It may be a grower that picks up speed in 2010. That’s exactly what happened for me with Alpinisms, the 2008 album by School of Seven Bells. Either way, Immolate contains some breathtaking tracks. I included my favorites in this post. “The Birds” now has an almost haunting significance, as the song slowly opens with the repeated lines, “The birds remind me of what we made. The birds remind me of what remains.” Charlie can hear those words, somewhere…
I’d never call myself a fan of Bruce Springsteen, but I did enjoy the band’s encore cover of “I’m On Fire” at the show. I took a short video clip that I’ll embed below, so you can get an idea of what the audience experience was like. (Note – While it was dark at the show, it wasn’t as dark as the video makes it seem. I could see both band members, and not just because I was standing 10 feet from them.)
- The Ruminant Bant by Fruit Bats
- Logos by Atlas Sound
- Psychic Chasms by Neon Indian
- Eyelid Movies by Phantogram
- East of Eden by Taken by Trees
- Ephemeral Exhibits by Starkey
- Immolate Yourself by Telefon Tel Aviv
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