A Supreme-o Love

About a week ago, I made passing mention of the Miracle Fortress cover of Daft Punk's "Digital Love". Today I noticed a couple posts with a Mobius Band cover of the same tune. At first I figured it might be a mislabel, but then upon looking into it, I find that it's one of the songs on Mobius Band's free valentine's day cover EP. The cover strays from Daft Punk a bit more than Miracle Fortress did, to ehh results. Also included on the EP, however, is a fantastic cover of "True Love Will Find You In The End", one of my favorite Daniel Johnston songs.

Download the entire EP

from the Mobius Band themselves here.

Rocking with the Shocking Pinks!

I've never been huge on Neil Young, which is why this post has nothing to do with his album Everybody's Rocking with the Shocking Pinks. It has everything to do with New Zealand's Nick Harte.

In my excitement over new LCD yesterday, I checked out a couple DFA acts I had never given a good listen to. Harte's band, Shocking Pinks, stood out as something I'll be listening to a lot more of. Check out the super new wavey video for the track "Emily".

Bonus points for the Black Flag Tattoo

I like "Emily" a lot, but my favorite track is definitely "Jealousy".

"Emily" by Shocking Pinks
"Jealousy" by Shocking Pinks

The track starts with this haunting atmospheric that's really well complemented by their grimy drum sound, then picks up with two beautiful interlocking guitar parts, one bleating and droning while the other melody dances over it. The song then jumps once more to a minimalist, percussion driven section, before returning to the lush atmospheric guitars. Like I said, it's definitely my favorite, but the rest of the album is absolutely worth your time.

I also found this video of Johnny Cash singing with Oscar the Grouch, one of several appearances he did with the muppets. It's fantastic.

It'd also be worth your while to check out Said the Gramophone for the Miracle Fortress cover of Digital Love, it's pretty awesome.

Siren Fest

So a Sirenfest lineup was announced today and although my suggestions were completely ignored, it still looks awesome. I could do without Matt and Kim, but Elvis Perkins is my man, the New York Dolls will be a fucking blast, and the Noisettes are cool.

"Emile's Vietnam in the Sky" by Elvis Perkins

"Vietnamese Baby" by the New York Dolls

"Sister Rosetta" by the Noisettes

PLUS,
Daft Punk is playing at Coney Island, (A CONEY ISLAND) with the rapture. BEST CONEY ISLAND SUMMER EVER!

"High Fidelity" by Daft Punk

"Get Myself Into It" by the Rapture

More Empirical Evidence that Vocoders Rule

I started writing this piece about songs that use vocoders versus songs that don't, and how the songs that use vocoder will always turn out better. A half hour later, I haven't done much of anything besides bob my head to wild amounts of daft punk and I can't think of any way that this half hour could've been better spent. My original argument had a lot to do with the fact that "Pop the Glock" by Uffie is a really fun head bopper and the fact that her non-vocoder material is kinda wack. Now, although her flow is suuuuper corny, I'm really finding myself enjoying her other tracks more and more. The production really doesn't hurt things, even if she comes off sounding like Tila Tequila most of the time.

Awesome Uffie
"Pop the Glock" by Uffie
"Ready to Uff" by Uffie

Guilty Pleasure Status
"Hot Chick" by Uffie
"In Charge" by Uffie

So if you've just listened to those songs and aren't convinced that the vocoder on "Pop the Glock" makes her sound a million times cooler, than you need to sit down with these next few tracks. They'll remind you how cool the sound is and for a bonus they'll shake your bouncy booty.

"Robot Rock" by Daft Punk

"Around the World" by Daft Punk
"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk

Also,
On two political sidenotes, if you're not familiar with the blog Fight to Survive, it's definitely worth checking out. It's a blog maintained by Iraq war veterans, started during their time in Iraq. It's not always a particularly pleasant read, but I think it's important to see that there are folks who have witnessed Iraq's "liberation" firsthand, and still think it's wrong. My second sidenote is that I was calling into the John Gambling show late last week and the call screener asked me if they could call me on Friday to talk to Sean Hannity. Apparently they try and arrange for liberal callers so Hannity can have someone to argue with. So if you tune in during the earlier part of the show, (770am at 3 o'clock in the NYC area) you just might hear Sean Hannity going back and forth with the green hornet. Or they might not call me. We'll see.

things that start with V's

Voxtrot


This band is out of Austin, Texas. They have 2 EPs out, both of which are fantastic. Their sound is pretty much just a mixture of a bunch of influences. The first EP (Raised By Wolves) pretty much just steals straight from the Smiths, Belle and Sebastian, and The Cure (I guess that is why I prefer it to the second EP). The second EP (Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, and Wives) sounds more like most other contemporary indie rock, but with some pretty kick ass songwriting.

Wrecking Force - Voxtrot (Raised By Wolves ep)
Some basic math gets us this song: Sonic Youth's guitars + Morrissey's vocal delivery + the emotional payoff of a Belle and Sebastian song = this song. I think the ability to marry these influences so well as to create thier own unique statement by the end of the song is impressive.

Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, and Wives - Voxtrot
Rise Up in the Dirt - Voxtrot
(both songs from Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, and Wives ep)
These two songs are more conventional indie rockers, but man do they rock. The second ep has a little less of the direct ripping off of the influences from the first one giving the band their own personality. Can't wait for a full length from these guys.

but i promised more V's, so...

Videos

Stylus Magazine (www.stylusmagazine.com), one of the more tolerable zines online, just posted their list of the 100 best music videos ever. The list is actually a ripoff of a post from a few weeks ago by Pitchforkmedia.com (which i somehow have issues with both the people who are against this site and the people who are for it). But the good thing about these lists is that thanks to YouTube.com, they can post the videos along with the blurbs. It is definitely satisfying to read about a video then watch it.

Stylus left ALOT of great videos off. They were also a little heavy on certain directors, some justifiably (though Spike Jonze is fucking overrated). Now, without giving away where Stylus placed these videos in case you actually go read the article, I am posting a little list of my own right here. My Top 5 Videos on the Stylus List. These are not my definite top 5 favorite videos, but my top 5 taken from the hundred on the stylus list.

5.Rabbit in your Headlights - U.N.K.L.E. ft. Thom Yorke (dir. Jonathan Glazer)

4.Come To Daddy - Aphex Twin (dir. Chris Cunningham)

3.Sometimes - Kid606 (dir. Pleix)

2.Coffee and TV - Blur (dir. Hammer and Tongs)

1.Around the World - Daft Punk (dir. Michel Gondry)