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podcasts
New Music No. 5
Jul 30th
Restless People
There’s something about the debut from Brooklyn-based Restless People that makes me really, really happy. It’s a great listen for summertime and nails the global, big breezy dance sound happening right now (check “Days of Our Lives”, below, for a reference to bands in a similar vein like Delorean).
The four friends have been working together in the groups Tanlines, Professor Murder, and Family Edition before coming together on this project.
The first single “Victimless Crime” is available on their site. I dig the description:
“Finger point / boogie / windmill / 2-step (??) / lie on bed & stare at ceiling / head bob / strut”
It makes me sympathize with artists in having to categorize their own music!
Get “Days of Our Lives” over at RCRDLBL.
The album is out September 14th (also National Cream Filled Donut Day! also my birthday! ) on IAMSOUND.
Andreya Triana
Andreya is a self-taught singer and songwriter from Brighton.
Her voice is soulful, hauntingly beautiful and put me in that “place” straight away. See for yourself, Andreya performing live with Simon Green aka Bonobo (also on the Ninja Tune label and producer of her debut album):
Visit her website for a free download of the tune “Lost Where I Belong” (the Flying Lotus Preview edit).
A Town Called Obsolete is set for release August 23rd on Ninja Tune.
http://www.ninjatune.net/andreyatriana/
Shit Robot
Irish born DJ Marcus Lambkin is Shit Robot. Co-founder to The Leaf label, he’s also co-conspiritor behind seminal NYC label DFA Records alongside LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy.
Guest vocalists on the album include LCD’s Nancy Whang, Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, James Murphy, and more.
The long-anticipated debut From The Cradle to the Rave is out September 21st.
Hear the July Mixcast:
Full selections:
Arcade Fire “The Suburbs (continued)”
Christopher Willits “You Are Always Surrounded by Stars”
B.O.B. “Generation Lost”
Kid CuDi “REVOFEV”
Baths “Animals”
Onra “Mechanical”
The Chemical Brothers “K+D+B”
Shit Robot “I Found Love (TBD Remix)”
Kele “12 EYW – RAC Remix”
!!! “Blue (Bonus Track)”
Restless People “Basic Needs”
Local Natives “Wide Eyes (Fool’s Gold Remix)”
Awesome New Republic “Dark Water”
Hugo “99 Problems (Jay-Z cover)”
The Drums “Let’s Go Surfing (The Raveonettes Remix)”
Bryan Ferry “You Can Dance”
Kisses “People Can Do The Most Amazing Things (Saint Etienne Remix)”
School of Seven Bells “Windstorm (A Place To Bury Strangers Remix)”
Musee Mecanique “Sleeping In Our Clothes”
Laura Veirs “Summer is The Champion”
New Music No. 4
Jun 27th
Here, the monthly mixtape! This one is light, breezy, and includes a couple of usual suspects by means of cool indie ‘ish alongside tunes just left of the mainstream. Besides some B-sides left from official releases (Raphael Saadiq, B.o.B.) we’ve got some fun remixes and party jams.
Enjoy!
A taste of who and what you’ll hear:
Human Life “In It Together” (Kris Menace Remix)”
A trio from Southern California made up of Joshua Collins, Matt Wasley & Rachael Starr. Their primary roots are in house music and they toe the line between cool dance and accessible pop which seems to be a big trend right now. It makes sense, as their influences cite everything from French and Chicago house to Genesis, Depeche Mode, Prince and the Happy Mondays.
http://www.myspace.com/humanlifedjs
The Acorn “Restoration (Four Tet remix)”
The Acorn is Rolf Klausener and friends. They’re from Ottawa, Ontario and started writing in 2002 under the name The Acorn. Their vivid songwriting and eclectic instrumentation is inspired by beauty in nature – and is shimmeringly beautiful. The album came out June 1st on Bella Union (the British indie label started by the Cocteau Twins). Pick up 2 free downloads in the mp3 store over at amazon.com.
http://www.myspace.com/theacorn
MNDR “Fade To Black”
MNDR aka Amanda Warner is another artist who combines pop with a love of electronic music.
Gotta give it up for the girl who can do it all – she singularly incorporates her well established musical background (midi programming, sound design, and analogue skills) and has toured with The Shins, The Fruitbats, and Har Mar Superstar among others.
An Amazon search delivers a nail polish by OPI in Electric Orange, so you’re better off hitting iTunes for her EP that came out in April.
Mark Ronson & The Business INTL “Bang Bang Bang” f. Q-Tip and MNDR
The forthcoming album from super-producer Ronson ditches the funk and soul sensibility of his past for a totally different sound. Forever keeping us on our toes, Ronson goes in a different direction incorporating synths and an 80′s dance aesthetic to bring the party proper.
As his past albums that featured collaborators like Wale, Daniel Merriweather and Amy Winehouse, Record Collection - due in September – includes an all-star ensemble including the likes of Boy George, D’Angelo, and Ghostface Killah.
Mos Dub “Hurricane Black” (instrumental)
A free download album from Max Tannone, the same gent who brought us Jaydiohead.
http://soundcloud.com/maxtannone/sets/mos-dub
Alicia Keys “Unthinkable (Lenzman D&B Remix)”
A remix of the inimitable songstress Alicia Keys by Lenzman, a self-described soulful drum & bass producer from the Netherlands. He has a lot of material on Beatport, most of it within the last year or so. No official album yet.
His Soundcloud page is pretty active too -you can check it out at: http://soundcloud.com/lenzman
// the full tracklist //
The Acorn “Restoration (Four Tet remix)”
Human LIfe “In It Together”
MNDR “Fade to Black”
Mark Ronson and The Business INTL “Bang Bang Bang feat. Q-Tip and MNDR)”
Curtiss King “Ren & Stimpy feat. Pheo & Ram)”
The Roots “How I Got Over”
B.o.B. “Trunk Band (feat. T Pain)”
Raphael Saadiq “Seven”
Foals “Miami”
Elite Gymnastics “Real Friends”
The XX “Infinity (Bachelors of Science remix)”
Alicia Keys “Unthinkable (Lenzman Drum & Bass remix)”
The Pharcyde “She Said (Portishead remix)”
Lindstrom & Christabelle “Lovesick”
Ratatat “Alps”
MixCast
Podcast (coming soon)
New Music No. 3
May 26th
A mix of some music I’ve been digging this month.
Who You’ll Hear…
Ana Tijoux
Ana is a multi-lingual Chilean rapper who raps melodically in both Spanish and French. Weaving insight and soul into the stories she tells, this beat-driven album is one of my favorites for 2010!
Junip
“Rope & Summit”
This is José González’s band and although they’ve been around for a minute, it’s the first official single coming from the first official EP of the same name. Junip will be touring in early June with an album coming in September and a full tour in November.
Tame Impala
“It Is Not Meant to Be” Innerspeaker (Modular)
Following in the steps of other amazing bands to come from the land-down-under as of late, Tame Impala are from Perth. They’re touring w/ MGMT - sharing a particular junkyard psychedelic sound that MGMT has brought to the forefront of their own latest album. The record “Innerspeaker” is out June 8th in the US.
Penguin Prison
“Something I’m Not (BretonLABS remix)”
Penguin Prison is Chris Glover, a dude from Manhattan who has done remixes for Goldfrapp, Marina & the Diamonds, Sébastien Tellier, Ellie Goulding, among others. This is a remix of his second single that came out in March. Get a FREE copy of the original along with 3 remixes at RCRDLBL.com.
http://www.myspace.com/penguinprison
Broken Social Scene “All To All”(Arts & Crafts)
BSS is a Canadian collective signed to Arts & Crafts records. Most of the musicians are members of others bands, or perform as solo artists (a few names that might ring a bell: Apostle of Hustle, Jason Collett, Leslie Feist, Kevin Drew, Metric, Stars, The Weakerthans). “All To All” is their first album in 5 years, out now.
Future Islands
“Vireo’s Eye” (Thrill Jockey)
Future Islands are a synthpop band from baltimore that formed in 2006 Greenville, NC while studying art at East Carolina University. They signed to Chicago indie label Thrill Jockey last year and the album “In Evening Air” came out early March. On tour now, they’ve got a few dates with Dan Deacon also from the B-More scene. They recently played in Los Angeles May 21 at Sync Space and the 22nd at The Smell.
http://www.myspace.com/futureislands
The National
“Sorrow (Instrumental)” High Violet (4AD)
I’ve always adored the baritone voice of singer Matt Berninger. Each song is epic and the instrumental versions really bring forth the talent of the band.
Miguel feat. J Cole
“All I Want is You” (Jive/Zomba)
Miguel is a singer, songwriter, musician and producer signed to the Jive/Zomba label. He did a cameo on Blu & Exile’s 2007 album “Below The Heavens” and was also on Asher Roth’s 2009 debut album, “Asleep In The Bread Aisle”. Now, he’s stepping out with his debut due later this year!
Watch him talk about the collab with J Cole here (via The Qside.com):
http://www.theqside.com/2010/04/11/miguel-talks-j-cole-collab-2/
http://www.myspace.com/miguel
cool videos including some covers
MIA
“XXXO” (N.E.E.T.)
A single from her upcoming album coming June 29 on her own label. Collaborators include Blaqstarr, Diplo, Rusko, Derek E. Miller of Sleigh Bells (also signed to her label, N.E.E.T.) and Switch.
You may have already seen the video for her other single “Born Free”. Quite controversial, it was removed from YouTube but now it’s back up (flagged as inappropriate). Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeMvUlxXyz8
Kele Okereke
“Tenderoni” (Glassnote)
The 28 year-old singer from Liverpool is best known as the frontman from Bloc Party. His solo album “The Boxer” is out June 21 and I can’t wait to hear it! It’s produced by Hudson Mohawke and XXXChange and from the singles sounds like it’ll be more on the electro side of things. Preview more songs, watch videos, and see tour dates here:
Deluka ”
Cascade (Deluka vs. Friendly Fires Chuck Buckett Mix)”
The single out now digitally along with a couple of amazing remixes. I believe the full-length is coming later this year.
Get a free MP3 of this song: http://deluka.bandcamp.com/
Airship
“Kids” (unsigned)
These guys hail from Manchester alongside their contemporaries like Delphic and Dutch Uncles.
Their self-released album came out this week.
Their travelog is cool. Check it out:
http://www.myspace.com/airshiptheband
Singing About Songbird
Mar 31st
Note: This article is syndicated at made this for you.
When it comes to media management, iTunes is a staple for handling my music library. A self-professed music junkie, I need a library that’s seamless to navigate, highly organizable, and can accommodate a limitless amount of files in a variety of formats.
I don’t infrequently tie my needs to any particular brand or product line. Although I love Apple products and require them to function on a daily basis, I try to switch it up whenever possible by incorporating tools and technologies from a variety of sources.
And I thought nothing could top iTunes until I discovered what Songbird can do.
Songbird offers the basic functionality of iTunes – unrestricted file capacity and unlimited playlists, navigational ease, import/export options; but tricks it out on many levels.
The open-source software offers total customization of your audio player. It offers plug-ins called “add-ons” that pull in bonuses while your music plays like concert info, data from last.fm, Shoutcast radio, and more. The MashTape add-on looks for related content like photos, video, and reviews from your bands by pulling in data from Flickr, YouTube, and Amazon. Online digital music store 7Digital recently partnered with Songbird to offer full integration. The store, currently in beta, will offer 320 kbps DRM-free MP3 downloads. They also promise to offer custom recommendations in the future based around what you’re playing from your library.
With all of these features, Songbird is a serious contender in becoming a viable alternative to iTunes. The only major downside is that Songbird doesn’t seamlessly connect to AirTunes allowing wireless playback from Songbird to a home stereo. A quick fix is a tool called Airfoil from Rogue Amoeba (the same company that created Audio Hijack). Although it will set you back $25 it seems to do the trick.
Songbird is an open-source, fully customizable music player built on the open-source media framework Gstreamer. You can participate by hacking on the software and trying out new builds before they’re released. A developer Recipe Book offers code snippets for “Featherers” to tinker with.They sell some pretty kick-ass t-shirts too!
Contribute: http://getsongbird.com/contribute/
Get Songbird v 1.1.1 now: http://getsongbird.com/
Unboxing Boxee
Feb 13th
Boxee is an open source media center that allows you to enjoy your movies, tv shows, music and photos in one place and pull more streaming content from the web. You can recommend items to friends – and see what your friends have recently watched or what they recommend.
I installed Boxee on my Macbook Pro running Leopard OSX 10.5.6. Boxee automatically discovered the music, movies, tv shows, and pictures on my hard drive, allowing me to navigate by format of choice.
One of the great simple features about Boxee is that I have the option to go online within each category seamlessly. For example, under “movies” I can access my Netflix account and stream movies from my instant queue. Under “music” I can log in to my Last.fm account and stream a station. Also cool is the ability to discover content from CNN, CBS, Comedy Central, Hulu, etc under “television”.
I can set up RSS feeds to add niche-specific shows that I prefer. This is where it gets interesting. Should I feed in a TED video podcast? How about CNN breaking news clips – or a torrent of Gossip Girl?
Extremely intuitive, sleek design. Awesome. Now how do I get this from my mac to my television?
For picture I connected my laptop to a Samsung 36″ HDTV using a DVI-D to HDMI adapter. For audio I used a basic Y Cable running from the laptop’s digital output to Onyko 5.1 Surround. Still looks sleek. In settings I can check real-time details to monitor how close I’m getting to 60 Hz.
Pretty cool. Now how can I control Boxee remotely to make the experience akin to watching television?
I discovered that the Boxee remote app is due any day. In the meantime, found an app called AirMote and installed it on my iTouch running 2.2 software.
All of this sounds fine and dandy. But, how does Boxee handle streaming? I can have access to all the content in the world but if the streaming quality is bad – buffering does not a good movie watching experience make.
Speakeasy.net tells me that I’m clocking in at a 1.5MB pull. Not bad. I watched a few trailers from the apple site and it looked great. I then went to Hulu to catch the latest episode of 30 Rock. Halfway through I almost forgot that I was watching over the internet. The stream was crisp and there was no buffering at all. The quality was about the same as watching television but higher bandwidth paired with more HD offerings could easily solve that. Streaming a movie from my Netflix instant-queue was different. It didn’t buffer but the video occasionally dropped a few frames.
I skated over to the music category and streamed music from my library then visited Last.fm. Would love to pull in music from other sources such as Pandora or Slacker, too.
Boxee allows me to friend other users and see what they’re watching. I can recommend programs to my friends and view items recommended to me on the Boxee homepage. At friendfeed, Twitter, and Tumblr I can share my recommendations, what I’m watching, and what I’m listening to.
I like having all of my digital media in one place. It’s fun albeit a little strange to lifestream what I’m watching. However I can’t multi-task and surf around on my computer while I watch. Time to save up for a Mac Mini! Then I can network all of my media somehow…. Which makes me wonder how I would go about backing it all up…ahh there’s always something.
Anyway, 2 thumbs up for Boxee.
note: thanks to Andy Sternberg for the Alpha version invite.
Choice Music Podcasts of 2008
Jan 4th
Rather than creating a Top 10 or Top 100 Records of 2008, I figured that I’d do something different this year by putting together a list of favorite podcasts from ’08.
These are all free podcasts that I subscribe and listen to on a regular basis (admittedly, mostly while doing cardio at the gym). Enjoy, and don’t forget to leave your comments by clicking at the top right hand corner of the post – I’d love to hear what you think!
*Note: Clicking on the title of the podcast will take you directly to the feed in iTunes.
1. La Blogothèque’s Takeaway Shows (video)
I’ve been subscribing for a few years and it’s still a fave. The folks behind the french blog La Blogothèque capture musicians performing in interesting and quirky places around Paris, from Andrew Bird strolling through Monmartre playing the violin to Bloc Party doing an acoustic set in front of a pub. Each show is simply wonderful and intimately beautiful.
2. KCRW Guest DJ Project
KCRW DJs interview a variety of celebrities from chefs to athletes, actors to comedians on the music that has shaped their life. The interviews are witty, surprising and often quite touching. I know the podcast well as I serve as the online producer for it at KCRW.com.
3. RCRD LBL
Each week the folks at RCRD LBL put together highlights from the week’s selections. I sometimes find it difficult to keep up with the amount of music they post during the week and this podcast offers a nice recap.
3. East Village Radio – Authentic Sh*t
The feed went down as of mid December. But if it comes back (God-willing) this is the ultimate way to get your Marc Ronson fix and hear some fresh bangers to get your Friday night started.
A hidden gem, the folks at Stones Throw regularly offer up treats like a rare DJ set from Peanut Butter Wolfs’ famed area codes tour, album previews and even the Badd Santa mixtape.
5. Ghostly Cast
The Ghostly International label – perhaps the best electronic label stateside – provide choice live sets and DJ mixes from Ghostly and Spectral artists.
Gilles brings in guest DJs and producers to discuss upcoming projects and new releases. The podcast is updated intermittently but each one is a treat.
7. Fader Magazine
The folks at Fader offer up an electronic version of their magazine via iTunes.
8. Morning Becomes Eclectic (video)
MBE provides a glimpse behind the scenes at the KCRW studios. The video podcast offers the entire live session from each artist along with the full 2-part interview.
9. Resident Advisor
A weekly podcast of continuous DJ mixes from online dance and electronic music magazine residentadvisor.net.
10. Woxy.com Lounge Acts Podcast
Performances from emerging indie artists taped live from the WOXY lounge in Cincinnati, Ohio. They offer additional podcasts too featuring unsigned artists, music news, and local bands.
Also:
KCRW Today’s Top Tune
A free song a day from KCRW.
The Interface (video)
The weekly videocast offers live performances from new artists.
Better Propaganda
Every month resident DJ Jonah Sharp Phil produces a podcast of the choicest tunes from all genres and forward thinking labels.
Daytrotter
Daytrotter features an indie band each week, performing four of their songs in-studio.
KEXP Music That Matters
Full-length songs offering a snapshot of what’s new in music.
