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music (for robots) (10 unread)

Did I leave something behind?

Posted: May 26th, 2006, 9:40am PDT by david

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Nashville-based band Lylas are just ... well, lovely. I know that's a dumb word for such things (as is, uh, "dumb"), but really, this is shiny, pretty music that still hits you where it hurts. It's lovely.
Lylas - Tiny Echos.

Though this kind of shimmery, lo-fi indie-folk has been around for a long time, I think the Shins really started something when Natalie Portman told everyone about how they changed her life, or whatever stupid thing she said. The point is, music for wimps was once again fashionable, and the world is somewhat better for it, though no one should have told the guy who picked music for the Gap.

Lylas' debut record Lessons For Lovers came out last month, and it's very good. Things are kept short and sweet, so you're left wanting more, which really is the trick with music like this. It leaves little traces of songs behind, and later you find yourself humming a song that you forgot you heard in the first place.

This a nice way to get your Friday started, before Blair comes in with his end-of-the-week dance track to make you shake your groove thang in the break room. (Pressure's on now, Blair!)

You can buy the lovely (you can't make me stop saying it!) Lessons For Lovers from Amazon and Insound.
Radio was playing, Desmond Dekker was singing

Posted: May 25th, 2006, 11:30pm PDT by dave w

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Desmond Dekker - Pretty Africa

R.I.P. Desmond Dekker

Desmond Dekker died today.

He was THE MAN who first had an international reggae hit--The Israelites. Given the global influence of Jamaican music, Dekker's impact cannot therefore be understated. But more importantly, his voice and music are just really damn fun and beautiful. Going to his website, you'll see that he still had dates booked for this summer--he was working at it until the very end. Read more here.

Robots love to Desmond's family and friends.
More = Tonight

Posted: May 25th, 2006, 12:30pm PDT by blair

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aaaaaand, Part Two:

Since I'm in NYC and can't go to that SMD party in London, here's a couple of items for tonite in my locale.

This evening there is an early show by some folks we've had here on MFR (here), Athens, Georgia-based Venice Is Sinking. They're touring in support of their great soon-to-be-released full-length album, Sorry About The Flowers. The record comes out in early June, but they've made it available for download via Athens Music and iTunes.

The show is at Pianos (Ludlow at Stanton), and is early (around 6:30). So since it is another beautiful Spring day, once you get off work today, you should jet on down to the LES spot, grab a cool drink and enjoy the show - maybe I'll see you there?

Here's 'Buried Magnets' from the new record to whet your appetites.

Check their site for full tour-info.

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And here's your reminder for tonight's late-night jammy jam, featuring me and James F!@#$%^ Friedman (Go Commando! / Refused!) - we'll be just down the street from Pianos at Cake Shop (Ludlow btw Stanton and Rivington) - we'll be rocking the robo-disco and techno-insanity all night long - we start after the last band is over (around midnight) and will go till close...

Take tomorrow off. Do it.

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If yer in Boston, you had better be going to see this Modeselektor + Jan Jelinek show at Enormous Room tonight. Seriously, that should be coo-coo-crazy! ---
I'm a hustler baby

Posted: May 25th, 2006, 9:49am PDT by blair

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Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler

Okay, so here we go. It is Thursday, the week is nearly over, the OC is done so my Thursday nights are now free... I've got a bundle of goods to get out to you, so let's start strong!

First off: Yes! Fresh disco freakiness, of the Simian Mobile Disco variety... "Hustler" is probably one of the most complete, fun and interesting original tracks these monkeys (James Ford and Jas Shaw) have produced - and as you know if you've been following along, us robots love the Simian Mobile Disco (and those of you that haven't been following along, yes, SMD is the distillation of former-psych-folk-rockers Simian, going it alone and making amazing dance music; see their Ladytron and Air remixes as reference). Anyway, "Hustler" features the vocals of NYC-based singer songwriter Char Johnson, and some of the fiercest basslines and acid-tweakery ever to leap and bound from your speakers. It has been circulating amongst some of the DJs I know for a minute now, but finally, June 5th actually, it sees an official release.

Based on the quality of the song, it should come as no surprise then that this track is the newest Kitsune Records 12" - for the real heads, there hasn't been a Kitsune record released that isn't worth owning (seriously, Digitalism, Tom Vek, Cut Copy, Black Strobe, all on one label?), and this one, with "Clik" on the B-side, is another essential piece of wax for the DJs out there. The song will also appear on the newest compilation, Kitsune Maison 2, which comes out in a few weeks.

NOW, to celebrate this release, the SMD boys, some of their musical friends, and our pals at Modular UK are throwing a party TONIGHT in London - SMD will be there along with the Klaxons, Mystery Jets, Good Books, and the Modular and Ten Dead Sloanes DJ crews - the jam is at Sin (144 Charing Cross Road - WC2H 0LB) and costs six pounds in advance or eight with your student union card.

If you are in London, be there or be square. More to come in a few...
It's OK Girl

Posted: May 25th, 2006, 2:28am PDT by mark

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Certified Bananas - Call Around You

So, over on the other side of the country, in my home territory of New England, a couple of guys named P.Nice and Audiovandal have been crazy busy making this spring's finest mix. We get a lot of mixes shoved under our door here at Robots, and while a lot of them are good, not many have that special something that sets them apart, ya know? Like, remember last summer when Certified Bananas made that August Mix last summer and you could just feel the sticky-ass humidity of a northern summer frying your speakers? Well, it happened. And they're back.

The new one is called Sprang and you can pick it up for a measly 9 dollars. So, rather than let us post the whole mix, P.Nice slipped me this little teaser mp3 that drops a few minutes into the full-length. When he first pitched it to me I was skepitcal. Tortoise? And Usher? You gotta be shitting me, right? But damn if it didn't turn out to be crazy good. I love that Tortoise track, and somehow it lends credibility to Usher that he just doens't normally have. The whole thing just makes sense, and they build this big song together. I don't know how these dudes came up with it, but this one of the better blends I've come across in recent memory (most of these things come off gimicky and stupid but every once in a while some next level type stuff comes along -- I'm thinking that Alicia Keys over Gregory Isaacs from a few years back).

Anyway, you should head on over to the Bananas' site and check things out. They've got some free mixes kicking around and some other fun stuff. And it should be noted that P.Nice is one of the magicians behind Miss Fairchild, which you know is one of my favorites.
Do You Keep It Close

Posted: May 24th, 2006, 2:09am PDT by mark

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Uzi & Ari - Don't Black Out.

I posted a track from Uzi & Ari's first record last year some time, so I was really pleased when Ben decided to send me a copy of their latest. It's a big difference from the first record, which was a lot of good indie rock that reminded me of Haywood. This new one reminds me more of the Mobius Band, and even Radiohead. Ben show's tons of growth here, both in terms of songwriting and in his vocal confidence. It's totally an engaging listen.

Everytime I hear this song I pick up something new. It runs through a few different sections, exploring a melodic line over different beats and instrumentation, oftentimes bringing in female harmonies all the while retaining a that tiny thumping bass in the background. Sometimes it's guitar, sometimes it's live drums, sometimes it's a quiet keyboard. No matter what it's a wonderful song, and as I sit here working late into the night I love having it there for me. The timing could be a little better -- this is by no means a summer anthem, but that's really beside the point. It's a cool spring night, and despite some dark undertones, I think the song is ultimately hopeful. It's also completely irony free -- which is something I can really get behind these days.

Once the end comes and all the elements finally join together it's a perfect release of tension, lasting only a moment before the song is gone again. I'm really happy with the way this turned out, and glad that Uzi & Ari are still making music. They're just on the tail end of a short western tour. I missed their two LA dates because I was out of town, but I'm totally kicking myself. There are dates on their myspace page -- so check it out if you live in Topeka or Boulder.

So this is the first real song of the new record. The rest of the record is quite good, and is a nice moody album that's beautifully recorded. Definitely recommended. You can pick it up for 10 bucks from Crying Girl Records.
Too old to fuck around, too young to die

Posted: May 23rd, 2006, 12:01am PDT by anders

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Murder By Death - Brother

To be perfectly honest, I really didn't like Murder By Death's new album "In Bocca al Lupo" the first time I heard it. Their last album, "Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them?" is one of my all time favorites and my expectations were high. I think I was basically expecting "Who Will Survive, part 2" and when it was clear that that wasn't exactly what it was, I was disappointed. I had to put In Bocca al Lupo aside for a while and come back to it with fresh ears and fewer expectations before I could start to appreciate it on its own as something very different. It's certainly not a continuation, and I do miss the piano (they're now a 4-piece), but the songwriting is undeniably mature and the playing skilled.

The final straw came from seeing them play the new material live at the Knitting Factory earlier this evening at their CD release show. Hearing how well the new songs worked live mixed in alongside the older stuff has gotten me excited about really exploring the intricacies of the new album.

Pick it up from Insound and get Who Will Survive... while you're at it if you don't have it. Catch them live if you have the chance.
You're the problem

Posted: May 23rd, 2006, 4:40pm PDT by blair

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The Medics - Bloody Up Your Dress

I love guitars!
I love guitars in stereo even more! Makes me want to get all air-guitar-heroic on my desk... thankfully I've been able to keep myself under control somehow, because this EP by the Medics has been filling my ears since yesterday and its really starting to get to me.

My buddy Ben has been asking me to check these guys out forever (as in "yo, did you check out the Medics page on Myspace yet?"), and I've always got so much music to sort through that I kept putting it off... See, I love the fact that Myspace is a relatively easy way to hear a random band, but it can also be frustrating trying to search around on the site itself, and for a while it was crashing my browsers and stuff... excuses, excuses. Anyway, I'm really glad I finally spent some time checking these guys out, because Ben was right: they are pretty great.

The band is Adir Cohen (Bass, Backup Vocals), Will Vunderink (Guitar, Backup Vocals), Don Van Conrad (Vocals, Guitar, Lap Steel, Synthesizer) and Cameron Wisch (Drums, Backup Vocals, Harmonics). They have been playing together for a couple of years now, and they recorded their record, Shangri-La, towards the end of last summer. This song is personally my favorite one on their EP - I mean, come on, listen to those sweet harmony vocals, and god help me when that guitar solo kicks in... these kids have serious chops! I wish the stereo-guitars part just kept on going! There is more great guitar work on the record - "Birds" and "Yeah" being standouts to me - and I think the record shows massive potential. I've been told these guys are still pretty young, so I'm guessing they will just keep getting better and better.

From what I hear, their live show is already incredible too, so keep an eye on their myspace page for info on when they're playing again - in fact they've got a show this weekend in NJ (hit their Calendar page for the deets). You can buy their CD (or vinyl!) at their shows, or you can order it from CD Baby, or download it from iTunes.
City Songs

Posted: May 22nd, 2006, 3:35pm PDT by blair

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Michael Mayer & Reinhard Voigt - Transparenza

Another beautiful spring day here in NYC - the kind of day where there's loads of (mostly smiling) people out walking around, despite the fact that it is a bit unseasonably cool and windy. It is the kind of day where putting on headphones and cruising around to your own city-soundtrack seems like the best idea since sliced bread.

With that in mind, here's a special treat: it has been a while since I've posted anything on Kompakt, so here's a new track from Kompakt's dancefloor sublabel Kompakt Extra, courtesy of Label co-head Michael Mayer and the legendary Reinhard Voigt (younger brother of Wolfgang Voigt aka Mike Ink). This comes from the latest 12" in the Speicher series, where they've already reached Speicher 36!

This is a relatively slow-paced track for the series, at least recently, as most of them lean towards club-banger style with pretty high tempos. I'm a big fan of the slow-burner type tracks myself, such as the Simian Mobile Disco remix of Ladytron, or pretty much any track Ewan Pearson lays his remix-hands on... Anyway, knowing the Speicher output as a whole, and generally what Mayer and Voigt have been up to lately, this track came as a surprise to me. It sounds a bit housey, as Mayer's work often does, but with a strong nod towards classic Detroit techno tunes, with a bouncing keyboard synth line, a nice slow build, and some fun klaxon-siren action in there to throw you off guard - essentially it has a great kick to it, and I personally can't wait to hear this on a big, booming soundsystem. Total summer song.

The 12" is out on May 29, and will be available at all fine vinyl retailers, direct from Kompakt, OR you can download super-high-bitrate MP3s via the brilliant Kompakt MP3 store. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the B-side! On it is another slow burner, this one by Davidovitch, a newcomer to the scene from Switzerland - a creeping synth line, crunching tech-house rhythm and some fun psychedelic effects that twist up vocal samples and churn them through filters. Both sides of this record make it well worth buying... in fact, keep your ear on Kompakt this summer, as they've got a string of essential releases coming up!

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PS: On a similar tip, this Thursday (May 25) me and my buddy (and NYC luminary DJ) James F!@#$%^ Friedman will be tearing the walls down at Cake Shop (Ludlow btw Stanton and Rivington) - expect disco-techno-madness, as we start late (midnight) and will go till they turn the lights on and throw us out... so come on, take Friday off and make a long weekend even longer by starting a day earlier!

Trust me, you'll thank me for it later.
And so I went and saw a preacher

Posted: May 21st, 2006, 10:45am PDT by david

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I don't buy this whole "mp3 culture is killing albums" argument. I don't think people will stop wanting records with single points of view, despite making playlists of individual tracks to accommodate our collective growing ADHD. There are still great records like this around; I'd count Arcade Fire's Funeral as a great example that others are likely to follow.
Minneapolis band Skittish - consisting mainly of Jeff Noller and a smattering of talented friends helping him out - has put out a record called Tragedy Of The Commons that follows in this tradition. Though Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over the Sea has few equals, this record reminds me a bit of that out-of-nowhere masterpiece in its eclectic approach and surprising catchiness. It runs around like a sugar-filled toddler, running into valuable objects at break-neck speed, and then suddenly slows to a crawl for a beautiful ballad or two.

Skittish - Carousel.

This track is pretty representative of the whole album. Its lyrics deal with frustration and disappointment, and the music is both emotional and fun. Granted, this sounds nothing like anything from In the Aeroplane Over The Sea, but the album as a whole has that kind of eclectic scope.
Plus, what can I say? I've got a weakness for handclaps, and this song has them in spades. Just wait for the end.

You can buy Tragedy Of The Commons from CD Baby.