Fratster is an artist

Haven't been hearing a lot of good shit lately/always. Went to David Bowie or Byrne or something concert at Radio City and it was really white like...the blackup singers were the only non white folks there. I knew about two songs and pretended to know two or three others. I was lying mainly because I had to justify spending $50 on the ticket and because the 50/50 Sprite/Vodka's told me to.

Hot?

Or Alien?

I've been digging Ellie Goulding and Bombay Bicycle Club. Thats not even new news. More British stuff - dunno why I'm into that scene lately - maybe its cuz the Americans are all experimentally lately and shit and its bugging me out!

That Junior Boys track Parallel Lines from the last post is also turning out to be pretty epic.

Becoming an artist!

Available now for free download!

Also decided to f around with some mixing software and make a few tracks. If this sounds like I spent all of 45 minutes making this song, its because I actually spent 15 minutes and am just really gifted.

Fratster - Morethananhouristoolongtospendmakingasong

Ellie Goulding - Guns + Horses

Bombay Bicycle Club - Cancel on Me

Lazy Bitch

I'm not sure how to phrase this any more delicately, but I've been a bit of a lazy bitch lately. Plus all the love throughout the blogosphere for shitty weird-fi bands like Animal Collective, DumDum Girls/Mayfair Set, Wavves has been depressing. Bonus plus, I've also been having sex on a consistent basis with some chick but she left me to go to Mexico with some other dude which is apparently just the sort of inspiration it takes for me to put together a post here.

Seriously WTF guy

Groakies?

Anyhow there is some good new shit out there, so here are a few of the things that I've heard lately worth listening to.

Fanfarlo

Stupid fucking band name that makes shit that sounds way too much like Arcade Fire and Beirut but is actually phenomenal.

Fanfarlo - "I'm a Pilot"

The Answering Machine

You're so money and you don't even know it.

Ma'am, where do all the high school girls hang out around here?

Another pretty much pathetic attempt at a band name. Name aside, they busted out the hook of the year in this track Cliffer. Their other stuff is really good too.

The Answering Machine - "Cliffer"

Phoenix

I am bizarrely in love with the band Phoenix. Basically, if I had to describe the median 50% percentile mean or whatever of my musical spectrum, I'd put Phoenix right there in my sweet spot. Sense any did that make? Anyhow, looks like they have a new track out and it's wonderful.

Phoenix - "1901"

Junior Boys

Another band that's pretty much in that sweet spot for me. Sometimes they miss, but they never shank, and when they nail it (In the Morning), it makes me wonder how 10,000 years ago, their ancestors didn't manage to crush any organism that I could have possibly descended from. Their new tracks are actually sounding pretty good, with this one being the best.

Junior Boys - "Parallel Lines"

Here we go Magic

This ring is not a metaphor.

This jam was the first real cracker of the year for me. Much more interesting rhythmically than Luke Temple's solo stuff. If not for the aforementioned lazybitchiness, this woulda had a full post a month ago, and I'd have perfect abs.

Here we go Magic - "Tunnelvision"

On the radar (I've been sitting still for too long to write anything more about any more bands): CFCF, The XX, Fever Ray, I Blame Coco, Heartless Bastards, Pains of being Pure at Heart

Animal Collective

I still don't get Animal Collective. I don't get the blogboy fascination. I don't get the critical darlingness. I'm more likely to successfully explain string theory to a retarded nine year old Chinese than make any sense of the common obsession with AC.

Rejected album art 1:

Or wait: I have one idea. Have you ever had that feeling that like you're lost and out of touch with shit and can't make sense of life and you tried reading Camus and Judy Blume and Harper's and tripping acid and smoking pot and searching for some experience that felt real or something like there was some piece of information out there that if you could just get your hands on it that maybe then things would all work out?

There is no book out there that everyone else is reading that makes them get it. There is no drug. There is no band. Animal Collective is not the second coming of jack shit. Their music sucks and I can't imagine a single working thinking person out there hearing AC and having any other thought than "What the fuck was that?"

I read the unreadable Pitchfork review and it's not that I disagree or think it to be bad writing or anything but I don't see how anyone who has ever read less than 100,000 words of music criticism could have made it through a paragraph. I didn't just pull that number out of my ass. Indie music has this stupid barrier to entry that punk and metal and rap and electronic and... don't have.

Lower it? Well maybe not, but let's save our exaltations for something that everyone can appreciate.

I guess that's all I really got.

Kanye

Someone stopped Kanye from chewing on his lo-fi vocoder for just long enough to record one really good jam. I dunno if I really really like this song or if I'm just so shocked that it's Kanye doing R & B really well that I think it's a really good song. Really.

"La la la Luke

I am your faaaaa-ther."

Kanye West - Streetlights

Mamma Sia!

Believe it or not I somehow entirely missed the album released by Sia via Australia via the Starbucks imprint this year. Of course I've also been inside of a Starbucks store for about ten total minutes in my life.


I was reading up on the top albums of the year and I found a list which had the error of having Sia at number one. I think it might have been a joke list because it also had Fleet Foxes and Coldplay up there in the top ten. So I had to check me out some Sia and I found out she used to be in Zero 7 which gave her at least some credibility. First song I found is the below linked jam "Buttons" which is super catchy (Thank You CSS) and spuriously lifted my expectations.

So then I wasted 30 seconds of my life walking over to my living room to visit one of the three Starbucks locations in my apartment where I was hoping to find her album. I either did that or I wasted 30 seconds downloading it for free from soulseek. Either way I'm never getting those 30 seconds back.

Before I fell asleep 11 seconds into the first track I remember starting to think that this was quite possibly the most unobjectionable music I've ever heard in my - and then I fell asleep - which is also to say that it is also probably the most unlistenable album of 2008.

But somehow CSS remixed this song "Buttons" and turned it into a really killer track worth checking out.

Acting is hard

I'm also throwing in "Breathe Me" because I'm pretty sure it was used to score the montage in the recent Ben Affleck/Hugh Jackman/Richard Gere + Goldie Hawn Jr./Jennifer Aniston/Julia Roberts film during the part where the male lead storms out of the Hospital/4-Star Restaurant/Wall Street Skyscraper/Crackhouse where he has been neglecting his female lead for far too long and sprints (tracking shot) through the rainy streets of New York/Seattle/Boston/Philadelphia, darting through the offices of the up-and-coming fashion brand/chocalatier/newspaper (editorials floor)/ where he finds the initially impassive female lead who puts her thin well-manicured hand to her mouth, doesn't know to laugh or cry, does both and just as Sia rasps "Be my Friend. Wrap me up. Hold me. Unfold me. I am Sma-a-a-a-all and Needy. Warm me up and Breath me," they embrace each other, make out and roll credits.

Sia - "Buttons" (CSS Remix)
Sia - "Breathe Me"

O wait looks like Coke has already used Sia. It's the one where the retarded kid wins gold and cries about it. LOL I thought this was some Ben Folds song LOL.

Easy Listening

Or oh god it's Winter and now it's cold.

Alaska in Winter later, but first I made this up:

Some of us are Vampires, some of us aren't.

I haven't heard much good stuff over the past week and I'm really reluctant to do a post involving Vampire Weekend in any manner, especially a post where I write something favorable about them. But...the Chromeo remix of "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance" is really good. Take away the annoying and precious VW authored rhythm sections, substitute a legitimate composer and now we have a really great dance song, a really great song.

I envision this conversation taking place when this song is played at a typical networking event @ awful 14th St. gay? bar / dj set @ a pre-MGMT, pre-Cold War Kids, Pre-TV on the Radio concert / some friend of yours' party (20 people or less) who's getting their Masters in (Worthless Advanced Degree Subject) which will not enhance their earning potential or status on the social/sex ladder as much as they hope and desire.

Person 1 (kindof annoying whiney voice): Hey does Paul Simon have a new album?

Person 2 (AIR OF ENTITLEMENT IMPOSSIBLE TO AVOID): I think this is a Vampire Weekend song.

Person 1: O I like it. Let me write that down using just my index finger on my gigatouchipad5000 and I'll download it later to play at thanksgiving for my mom and dad I bet they'll like it too.

Fratster: FUCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!! I WANT TO STAB MYSELF RIGHT NOW IN THE FACE!!!

Person 2: Did someone say someth-

Person 1 (loosening ascot): It's a remix or something. The original is much better.

Fratster: Gurgle

Or something like that. Anyhow, thank you Chromeo for legitimating this song.

Is this Alaska in Winter?

Or is this Alaska in Summer.

OK now for Alaska in Winter the band. It really is just nice smooth music that is easy to listen to. It's not original or unique in really any way I can think of. You can actually even forget it's on most of the time. It's that good. So check it out, it's the best I've heard this week:

Chromeo - Remix of Vampire Weekend's The Kids Don't Stand a Chance

Alaska in Winter - Berlin

Irresistible

Matt & Kim's jam Daylight is catchy as fuck. It's pretty much the cutest most irresistible thing this side of an Olsen twin.

Quiz:

Who's the most Irresistible?

A. White Indie Rockers with White Belts

(Very Irresistible).

B. High maintenance white chicks with white ___ on lips.

Thanks for making milk pervy Mary and Kate!

C. Snappy old white guy with young white models
Bottom row 2nd from left (Simply Irresistible).

Matt & Kim - Daylight

Ya Ya Ya I found it!

Tracks from Esau Mwamwaya have been trickling to me all summer. Everything I've heard has been promising, but I hadn't heard the knockout track that delivered on the promise til just now. If Vampire Weekend got an episode of SNL, this song should get a season.

The Very Best - Dinosaur on the Ark

I'll stick to Awesome thank you.

I really should just leave this post with the title. After reading this sixteen times, it is in fact the best thing you'll find in here.

Fratster

I've been doing some thinking, which means that I just thought of this, but all my reviews read like shitty Patrick Bateman styled crapola. In case you're confused, that means my reviews - ya know, the ones where I talk a lot about how the music sounds; those are the one's that read shitty. Ya shitty, not shittily, sorry. They read shitty. I think that's more than enough poop references for one paragraph, THIS THING'S GETTING BLOATED!!!!

However, this post does, unlike shoulder hair, have a purpose ...for those of you non-heroine abusers who are fans of late night dance beats, or early night beats, or good clean american fun.

Ok, I'm just saying that if I had a club or any one of those places that hires the penis pill spam man to cluster fuck my inbox with promotions, I'd play these tracks a lot. That's it! These tracks are Awesome! and lest I fuck the goodness of these songs up with words I'll stick to Awesome thank you.

Weird Tapes - TV Romance

Weird Tapes - Home

Kings of Leon

Billy Crudup and Jason Lee of Kings of Leon

I should not be doing a Kings of Leon post. Except I actually like their new single. A lot. It helps that WOXY keeps reminding me to like it. Thank you WOXY!

My general impression of Kings of Leon's already released music has been roughly the same as Pitchfork's review of their latest work. OK I'll just put it this way, I got nothing out of it and I thought it sounded like generic American rock, whatever that is. However, this new track is cool. It's ambitious and big and European. It's Euro Rock! Minus the Hasselhoof. Think Twilight Sad and ya I'll say it U2.

Since I'm covering big bands today apparently, I'll just say that the more I hear the new Killers song "Human," the more I like it. Its only downfall is that its too broadly appealing. How Horrible. I mean like, I could imagine this song being played on regular radio and TV and MTV and like in jesus, teenagers ipods, shit no doubt a kidsbop mix is already in the works.

Brandon Flowers with guitar (1973)

Human is new wave Enrique Iglesias. It's Enrique Iglesias for hipsters, college kids, tweens, hockey moms, Movie, TV, and Music music execs. It's Enrique Iglesias for Enrique Iglesias. The Killers are Enrique Iglesias with a better band. I'm not saying that's not good. I'm saying that's why everyone loves them. It's pretty music that you can listen to without feeling like you got caught masturbating to Sears catalogs by your grandparents.

One thing I think I can safely say now safely with some degree of safety, accuracy and precision is that the Killers are probably safely the best band of the last ten or so years and there's really probably no doubt that its a safe bet that there's no more critically and commerically successful band from the past decade, ya fuck you radiohead and coldplay, and other bands not worthy of capitalization.

I think the Killers are gonna wrap it up with this album. The critics and college kids may have loved In Rainbows, and dentists across the country are jamming to Viva La Vida, but the Killers are gonna come out of this ahead with another huge album.

The Killers - Human

Kings of Leon - Closer

P.S.

1. One day I'll get back to posting about bands you actually may not have heard of. But I feel like my views about some established bands have been sortof contrarian as of late, so I thought I'd share a few words.

OMG I love Robin Hood (and Lykke Li)

2. I stole (which means I didn't ask) the Killers link from Minneapolis Fucking Rocks which is a really good blog. Thanks! I also stole the Kings of Leon link from another blog I've never heard of.

Anyways, I don't really understand how a blog could get pissed at another blog for stealing it's link. It would be like if Robin Hood had a rival um...thief like, what if Little John started pinching a bit of booty from Robin Hood and redistributing it.

Ya, a blog getting upset about another blog stealing its links would be like Maid Marian getting upset at Little John for pinching Robin Hood's booty, which in case you're Sarah Palin, a nonnative-english speaker, or just not catching my drift is perfectly fine with me.

Bon Iver

Whoa two singer songwriter posts in one week what the hell is going on. Well I wouldn't be posting unless the stuff really blew me away and god does it ever. Bon Iver is actually the project of a broken hearted lumber jack named Justin Vernon who locked himself inside a Wisconsin cabin this past winter and recorded this stuff himself. Vernon sings in a yearning falsetto and is generally only accompanied by an acoustic guitar though a few tracks have some horns added to excellent effect. The stuff is soulful and mournful which in his vernacular adds up to beautiful.

And O yes he did do a short set before the Land of Talk / Rosebuds show I was at earlier this year. As I recall, he did have some box set up that added some atmospherics to a very still room. He wasn't on the billing so I didn't really know who he was - there were only about 15 people in the room so the experience was very personal.

Bon Iver - For Emma.mp3
Bon Iver - Skinny Love.mp3

The album For Emma, Forever Ago is available here.

Stars

I've been trying to spend as much time with the new Stars album In the Bedroom After the War as I can lately. And therein lies the problem. Maybe I've changed, maybe they have. Maybe they've grown up faster than me but I feel as if I'm forcing myself to love this album.

Amy Milan's voice is as beautiful and probably more prominent here than ever. The album on a whole is just that - very pretty, but I can't find anything quite evocative about it. There is a pronounced lack of the vibrance or bravado I guess that was so evident in songs like "Set Yourself on Fire," and especially "Your Ex-lover is Dead." There is a definite step away from the sound of "Ageless Beauty," which was new and shoegazery for Stars in 2005 but there's nothing like that here. In the Bedroom After the War recalls biologically and sonically to the sound of Torquil Campbell's adult contemporary side project Memphis and the first Stars album Heart.

Nearly every song here is a ballad - if there's anything that Stars have never lacked, it's earnestness and this album bleeds it. And if you ever forget it - the strings that accent nearly every track will remind you - and if not nearly every track - then why does it feel that way? I know, Stars use strings frequently and have done so for a while but instead of being the featured voice like they have in the past, they seem to be a cloying Goo Goo Dollsish presence here - just a production effect - and I guess that's just a bit disappointing.

Probably my favorite song on the album is "My favorite book," which is introduced by a divine Amy Milan vocal - I mean seriously she sounds just as good as anyone acapella. It then proceeds into a jazzy Hall and Oatesy chorus full of island frills and Doo doo doo's which though totally out of character for Stars is actually a pretty interesting dynamic. There are interesting moments in other songs as well: "Life 2 The Unhappy Ending," features a short but well done venture in to electrodance and Torquil Campbell has his own Michael Jackson er...Justin Timberlake moment on "The Ghost of Geneva Heights."

None of the songs have quite the power though of past Stars efforts. Even the released track - "The Night Starts Here," isn't the jam I'm gonna start my night out with - of course unless it's Tuesday and "OMFG I have a BIG CLIENT to meet with at 8am tomorrow." No, it really only has one place and that's in your bedroom after like a really big fight or something and it's just fine that way but that's all.

My Favorite Book.mp3
The Night Starts Here.mp3

Please Refrain From Purchasing the Hyperbole

This is the first installment of a series I've always wanted to do. Basically bloggers like to talk on and on about how one or another artist is all great and then other bloggers start to think to themselves - "o well I better write something about this artist as well or I won't be interhip," and then you just end up in this quagmire of bloated talk about an artist who's music just isn't all that great but just happens to be the artist of the moment. E.g. Tapes n Tapes, Joanna Newsome. So this little feature is where I'll point out who those artists are and why you should maybe give a second thought to purchasing the hyperbole.


St. Vincent (Annie Hall) has eyes that are so big you'd think she was about to eat your grandmother. According to her press photos she also enjoys wearing garbage bags, pretending to be lost, and standing barefoot in puddles of water while holding giant metal rods towards darkening thunderclouds.

She actually plays the guitar pretty well but she sings like a fed up Mary Poppins. Probably the only tolerable song I have heard from her with the possible exception of a cover of "These Days," a song which I had previously thought to be unbutcherable is called "Now, Now." The song is accented by these precious little guitar harmonics and for four minutes Annie manages to channel her innate cuteness.

The rest of the songs sound as if they were recorded to soundtrack a musical where Woody Allen has imprisoned her in the dungeon of a transylvanian castle, lets her out for two days in Prague, and then forces her back into the dungeon to compose an album while Woody's neurosis gradually wins her over.

If you still want an mp3 from St. Vincent then I suggest you try the internet - they're giving em out for free everywhere.

Windmill

Well I just posted on Minus Story, the Uh...American version of Windmill. Apparently Windmill released a 7 song LP back in September of last year and now have a 12 song EP Puddle City Racing Lights available with a number of the same tracks. Anyhow, they've been getting a decent amount of blog love lately. They've got a big ambitious sound and I've heard a lot of Arcade Fire comparisons which is a reach - ya Windmill's sound is expansive in purpose but not realized the way that Arcade Fire is with their menagerie of sound. Comparison's to Minus Story and Florida's Radical Face are much more apt.

Windmill - Tokyo Moon.mp3

Windmill Myspace

The Teenagers

It's early, but this summer needs some party music and The Teenagers "Homecoming" is my early nomination as the summer banger. The remixes have started to flow in but this jam has some serious staying power. At first I thought the lyrics were being read straight out of Bret Easton Ellis' The Informers. I won't be copying them here not because of their uh...interesting use of the English language but because it's so much more awesome if you just hear it.

The Teenagers - Homecoming.mp3

IT'S ALIIIIIIIIVE!

It's that time of year again - weddings, rain, baseball, graduations, and BLOGGING! This of course is my first post ever and I'll spare the bloggish self-examination for another time because now is the time to celebrate the fact that I was actually able to figure out how to do all the nerdy stuff that is associated with creating a blog in under three hours and I just want to get some content out there to the world! For those of you scoring at home, the first three sentences of this blog ended with an exclamation mark! So, here it is - your standard blogger faire - a picture and a song. Thanks go out to Said the Gramophone - the first music blog I ever read for posting this song.


Yeasayer - 2080.mp3

Yeasayer Myspace