Academik

Come support your favorite blogger/podcast/friend on August 30th at RX Gallery.
Hip-Hop, Mashups, Remixes, Dance, Electro Pop, Electro House…deliciousness all around.

Albert Hammond Jr., Arcade Fire, The Submarines, Camera Obscura, Alexi Murdoch - 5 bands, 2 songs each, all Indie goodness. Ranging from Indie Rock to Indietronica to Singer/Songwriter - this week is filled with some of the latest and greatest from the indie world along with a few selections from years passed. http://www.academik.org for a full playlist.

Tracklisting:

Everyone Gets a Star - Albert Hammond Jr.
Scared - Albert Hammond Jr.

Black Mirror - Arcade Fire
Neon Bible - Arcade Fire

Peace and Hate - The Submarines
Ready or Not - The Submarines

Happy New Year - Camera Obscura
Pen and Notebook - Camera Obscura

Breathe - Alexi Murdoch
Love You More - Alexi Murdoch

Click here to find out how to listen!

The power of music is in the mood and emotion that it sets in us. It has the power to change us - to make us smile on a bad day, to instill peace in us when the world is falling apart, the power to make us dance and forget our troubles, or inversely to embrace our anger or let us wander among our miseries. We identify songs with emotions, with people, and with places. This song doesn’t have strong ties to any of these emotions… yet.

Alexi Murdoch’s Orange Sky, is a simple and beautiful song about hardship and hope. “WellI had a dream I, stood beneath an orange sky… with my brother standing by” Juxtaposing the imagery of an orange sky - the color of fire, and the color of battles written across the clouds - with the image of a “brother” or a “sister” standing next to him, Murdoch paints a picture of unity against a backdrop of conflict.

“And you know sister my hearts been broken. Sometimes, sometimes my mind is too strong to carry on. Too strong to carry on.” Sometimes our minds take over for our hearts, for when we are wronged it is rarely our minds that suffer. Our hearts are the ones that bare our scars, ceding more and more territory to our minds every time we are cheated, fooled, or swindled - if we let it.

“When I am alone, when I’ve thrown off the weight of this crazy stone, when I’ve lost all care for the things I own, that’s when I miss you, you who are my home. You, who are my home.” - It’s only when we overcome our hardships (perhaps accepting that their will always be hardships), when we forget about our materialism, that’s when we realize what life is about - each other. When we are not distracted by our job, entertainment, or material things, then we can’t help but remember how important people are.

“Here is what I know, in your love, my salvation lies.” It’s in the love of others that we will find our purpose and our destinies.

All this from a simple song found in a movie trailer earlier this week. Find the song in this week’s podcast - Feb. 5, 2007

technorati tags:music, alexiMurdoch, OrangeSky, Hope, Hardship

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Although it was released in March this album has just found its way into my iPod, thankfully. Neko Case is an American singer/songwriter who was born in Virginia, but has spent much of her life in the Pacific Northwest (Tacoma, WA and Vancouver, BC to be specific). I’ve listened to some of her other work and it just didn’t grab me the way that Fox Confessor did, but I have to say that sometimes music has to sink in before I can really appreciate it.

The album, which has been in my iPod for a little over a week, lends itself to wandering journeys across the city. Case has a voice you’d want to read you to sleep at night, but she would be reading macabre stories that end in ellipsis. She’s been compared to Patsy Cline, a very easy comparison to make ignoring Case’s broad range of styles. Case’s words read less like songs and more like poetry on the page. Lines like:
“I am every bell that tolls me”
“the look on your face yanks my neck on the chain“…
“Margaret is the fragments of a name, her love pulls like a fountain, her love steams like rain” draw her listener in. The words leave meanings for all of us to find.

“Margaret Vs. Pauline”, has an ethereal downtrodden country story feel; the story of two women - one leading a life of privilege, the other of poverty.
“Star Witness”, the second track, is the song I find myself listening to on repeat the most. The melody and poetic use of words along with Case’s airy vocals make it a pleasure to lose yourself in.
“Maybe Sparrow” gives Case the opportunity to wale - belting out tears about the loss of a friend who wouldn’t listen - while also giving her a chance to reconcile the sorrow into beautiful hopefulness.

The rest of the album is good at worst. A former punk singer, Neko can change the tone of her voice to match most any mood - melancholy & melodic. She varies between country, alt country, and rock equally well across the entire album.

There’s a reason why this made it into most critics lists as one of the Top 10 albums of the year - check it out.

Neko Case - Margaret Vs. Pauline

Neko Case - Star Witness

Wednesday was the concert for the recently re-united Brand New Heavies at Mezzanine - apparently someone here has taken a list of my favorite bands and asked them to come perform - thanks Travis! I had heard of the Brand New Heavies back in my high school days, but I was too deep in teenage angst to realize what great music this was. So i show up on Wednesday and I happen to run into the guitarist and lead singer of Phonofly. I’m not sure if the title is official yet, but at the last show for Phonofly (Halloween at the Rock-It Room) I think they dubbed me official dancer for the band - I still have to pay the cover charge to get in though :<

Back to Brand New Heavies - a couple years back I picked up their album Trunk Funk Classics 1991-2000 and was hooked on this combination of soul/funk/pop/hip-hop. Brand New Heavies has a really unique sound that you can instantly recognize. Their big hits, “Stay This Way”, “Dream On Dreamer” and “Sometimes” are all on this CD that also features my favorite track, “Soul Flower”, a collaboration with Pharcyde. If I had to describe Brand New Heavies in terms of other bands I would say James Brown mixed with Erykah Badu, blended and dusted with pop.

Unfortunately I’d lost the CD a while back so I didn’t have a chance to catch up for the concert, but the opening act, Sutro (the lead singer’s crazy hat pictured to the left reminded me of a Seinfeld joke… the 90’s called, they want their hat back) got the party off to a decent start. Their music is a mix of live instruments and programmed tracks that pull heavily from the trip-hop and downtempo genres. Their music was good, but I never felt like it went anywhere - no breakdowns, no liftups - at least none powerful enough to remember. Decide for yourself on their MySpace page by clicking on their name above.

Brand New Heavies came out to cheers and clapping from the almost packed house. They started playing and immediately I remembered their sound - funk/pop/soul goodness - it’s the type of guitar playing and rythm that make your body want to pop & lock, your hips shake, your eyes close, and for a few minutes the world seems pretty damn good - oh and it also makes you want to get laid.

I was lucky enough to meet two friends there, Jodi and Jill, so I got a special invite to a birthday party upstairs… Happy 30th Jameson, Manager at Mezzanine!
They opened with Dream on Dreamer and then progressed through a number of songs I didn’t recognize. Then the decidedly Scottish sounding guitarist got on the mic and he introduced each of the band members - each did a wicked solo. All in all it was a good concert - perhaps not worth the $30 ticket, but good to see a great band back together. Also whoever decided that concerts on a Wednesday should go until 1am needs to take a hike. If a concert takes place during the middle of the week I say I should be able to be home by midnight. Am I the only one who feels this way?

Video of Brand New Heavies performing Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes

-one of these days I’ll get a better camera, or there will better light… I promise

Click here to listen to some original tracks by the Brand New Heavies

Whenever I see this band’s name I am reminded of the time in Paris where I was too dumb to be mugged. These kids kept repeating, I have a kuh-nife. They didn’t get any money off of us because we knew they were amateurs - the k is silent ,bitches.

So in my neverending quest to soak up good music in this city I was at Mezzanine again this past weekend for a show by The Knife, a Swedish electro group. The female singer in the group is 5 months pregnant so the show started promptly just before 10pm… We arrived to packed house and the group performing at about 10:05pm. They had erected a ________(insert theater term for screen) in front of the stage to project images onto while they were doing their set. Everything was pretty much to a “t” exactly as it sounds on their CD, but the presentation was pretty over the top.

Both members of the group were in crazy costumes that looked like they were being protected from nuclear fallout; there were blacklights and lot of crazy individual lights behind them (much as I saw with Metric). They really held the audience’s attention as the female sang and the man used what looked to be the orange directing cones that airport workers use to guide planes to play samples on a drum pad. You really got the feeling that they had put a lot of effort into making this a unique show for their fans. The video of Silent Shout is below. If you are feeling adventurous check out the following tracks: Heartbeats, Na Na Na, and the Captain. Fellow Swede (born of Argentine parents) Jose Gonzalez does a great acoustic remake of Heartbeats as well.

Silent Shout by The Knife

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This week on the show - more fun than midget tossing, err… maybe. A sundry mix of dance, rock, rap, and mellow yellow. Don’t go to the Folsom Street Fair if you can avoid it. Or unless you are male and looking for a same sex partner…or you’re straight and female and you want to see buff oily guys doing various inappropriate for public viewing acts like masturbating, whipping, and peeing. Yes. There was a golden shower booth. Blech.

Track - Artist
Intro - Basement Jaxx
Dream Machine (Downtempo Mix) - Mark Farina featuring Sean Hayes
Olvidela Compa - Nortec Collective
DARE (Soulwax Remix) - Gorillaz
She’s Good for Business - MSTRKRFT
Take Me Back to Your House - Basement Jaxx

Push - Pharoahe Monch
Down with Prince - Hot Chip
30 Day Hump - Evamore
Calling All Cars - Sean Hayes
Not California - Hem
You Belong to Me - The 88

As always, let me know what you think! Have a new song that’s really speaking to you at the moment. Let me know and set the music free so that everyone can enjoy!

So last night a co-worker and I went to see Ed Bangers sensation Uffie - the pop/dance darling of Paris. Short, cute, and with a throwback style (short jean shorts, a white top, and adidas jackets that was purple blue and green) that makes me wish the eighties were here - Uffie came ready to… well Uff.

She flows/speaks over poppy progressive dance electronic beats and breaks with vulgar tongue in cheek lyrics. Think a mix of the streets with peaches. The show was at the Rickshaw stop which turns out to be a great place for a concert. Small enough to be intimate and large enough to allow ample room for frolicking.

After chatting with some X-handed girls from LA and grabbing some Rockstar&Vodka I proceeded onto the dance floor. The tunes were great at this place and in no time I was coerced by my hands and feet into unassuming convulsions on top of a speaker next to the stage. Just as I was about to have the crowd join me in a rousing chorus of Daft Punk is playing at my house, a large bouncer made me get off - I almost had them!

Uffie came out for literally - maybe 40 minutes - to sing Pop the Glock and Ready to Uff and then she disappeared off stage. My co-worker disappeared with a friend of his and I was left in a fit of dancing - maybe the place I love most in life? The crowd was great - a little young, but that was 2 be eXpected - definitely very funky and hipster. The place was great and apart from the concert, the DJs did a great job of keeping the crowd dancing - a nice change from the general wall-flower crowd of most bars. Definitely will make the Rickshaw a bad habit of mine.

I wandered home in the company of friends from Dallas on the phone - grabbed a patty melt from Mel’s Drive-In and then came home. It was a wonderful night - one of those nights that you know start to finish is going to be good!

Track50 is a new way to keep tabs on the live music you want to see. You enter your favorite bands, and they’ll notify you when they are playing in town. They search multiple music sources, so you can enter both local bands and big mainstream names. Only the bands that you specify are tracked, so you won’t receive SPAM Newsletters profiling random bands like on MySpace. Check it out - www.track50.com