Yes that magical day has arrived once again. We decided to put this post up early because during the day we won’t be able to type. In fact, we probably won’t even be able to walk. So get out and enjoy your day of public drinking (and of course the ensuing shenanigans). Cheers!
Drunken Lullabies – Flogging Molly
I Was Drunk (ft. Noze) – Riva Starr
Hurricane Drunk – Florence + the Machine
I Am Not Drunk (The Bloody Beetroots Remix) – Benny Benassi <— that’s a lie, you’re drunk.
Fang Island, the latest quintet to emerge from Brooklyn, has just released their debut, self-titled album this past February on Sargent House records. The recommendation comes from this guy who draws a comic, and he thinks it’s easily one of the best albums of the year (so far). The band describes their music as “everyone high-fiving everyone… [the] songs are like the music in your head at that moment when everything feels just right: that first kiss, that high score on the video game, buying your first small nation in cash… you know, good stuff.” Although this music has failed to stir any long lost emotions in my probably black heart, I still think it’s pretty good.
Fang Island can initially be quite daunting. After the initial Ratatat-esque intro and soft, harmonized outro of ‘Dream of Dreams’, the album dives into a consistent sound. Anthemic (or at the very least long) guitar riffs mixed with epic harmonizations or chant-like vocals appear on most tracks. The mixture of these, though, can create a pretty intimidating wall of sound. It took me a few tries, but I finally got past this initial sound barrier; now, the more I listen to Fang Island the more I realize how intricate it is, and the more impressed I am by it. Behind the aforementioned initial epic/anthemic/chanting/long veil are snippets of influence from a shopping list of genres from folk to punk, indie-rock to surf-rock to hard-rock, and the list goes on! They retain an emphasis on the guitar for the entire album, but the constant tempo changes (both between, and within) songs makes the album’s progression more interesting.
Fang Island is not background music. There is too much slight variation to have a proper feel for the music without closely listening to it. Impressed as I was, though, I felt that the constant wailing guitar didn’t provide enough substantial variation in the album: it wasn’t until the soothing, slightly synthy Davey Crockett that the album took the chance to relax. ‘Dorian’ wraps up the album with more electronically-influenced sounds (tying the sound back to the beginning, I guess) that don’t really go anywhere, but provide an oddly satisfying conclusion. Fang Island has produced a solid debut album, and I’m excited to see where they’re influenced from, and headed to, next.
The Absolute Place (Chris Keating [Yeasayer] Remix) – Fang Island
Time for the songs and video of the day! We have a pretty interesting mix for all of you today.
Two – The Antlers…I know that we’ve covered The Antlers a lot lately, but this is one song I just can’t get out of my head…soo good.
And for the video of the day, we have this vid of The National premiering the first song of their upcoming LP, High Violet, on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The song name is “Terrible Love”, and it’s definitely worth a view. Not only is the song good, but their performance is great as well.
Additionally, today The National announced the tracklist for High Violet. It goes a little something like this:
1) Terrible Love
2) Sorrow
3) Anyone’s Ghost
4) Little Faith
5) Afraid of Everyone
6) Bloodbuzz Ohio
7) Lemonworld
8 ) Runaway
9) Conversation 16
10) England
11) Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks
I don’t know about you, but I’m personally pretty excited about the prospects of this album. With the bands longstanding reputation for consistently putting out solid records, plus song titles like Lemonworld and Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks, the album looks like it’s bound to be great. The album is set to release May 11 on 4AD; stay tuned for more coverage as the drop date gets closer.
Cheers!
Wu Massacre, the latest collaboration between Method Man, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon, has been in limbo for some time. Originally slated for a December 22nd release date, disputes between Wu and their label Def Jam kept this one the back burners for a while. Because Def Jam held its release for so long, individual tracks slowly began to leak, and the full album will now be released on March 30th. Meth was recently quoted saying of the album:
“Def Jam put a rush on it. We didn’t have a lot of time to work on it. We recorded with no budget. It is what it is. We did this for the fans. It felt good to get in the studio with Rae and Ghost. The future looks bright.”
Despite Meth’s less than satisfactory description of the album, most of the tracks that we’ve heard so far from Wu Massacre still deliver what fans of Wu Tang continue to expect from these guys. With contributions from Cappadonna, Trife Disel and others, we’ll see what else this album has to offer when it finally comes out. Lets hope that Wu’s future is as bright as Meth says it is.
Youngtown Heist (ft. Trife Disel and Sheek Louch and Bully)- Meth, Ghost and Rae
Here is part 1 of 3 of the trailer special made for this album, and for more about the album’s artwork check this out.
Last night, March 13, Real Estate played at Club Lambi. As much as we would have liked to, we weren’t able to catch the show. We did, however, have the opportunity last week to chat with Real Estate singer/guitarist Martin Courtney. He discussed pop music, playing house parties, and his love for his friends’ music. Check out the interview here, and some tracks from the band below.
Younger Than Yesterday – Real Estate
Finally Sunday has come around, and we’ve got nothing remaining (we know how you feel: Confound! Look outside, it’s raining!) But the work from the weekdays is finished, and the partying from the weekend is done. My will to do anything diminished, so it’s time to just sit on my bum. And to facilitate your chilling, here’s a bunch of tunes. It should help with your thrilling, Lazy Sunday afternoons.
Ikoyi Mentality versus Mushin Mentality – Fela Kuti
Little Girl (ft. Julian Casablancas) – Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse
Stay classy.
Happy Friday everyone, we hope that you share our excitement in celebrating the end of this week. Spring is in the air, the snow is melting and our hibernation is finally coming to an end, so make sure you get outside and enjoy yourself this weekend. There’s plenty going over the next few days to keep you busy, including Blog Wars, Tiga, and Steve Aoki; check our ‘MTL Concerts’ Page for all the info.
In preparation for the Woodwork festival on the 18th, our first mixtape this week comes from Sound of Stereo. Flatland is an hour of the Belgian duo’s hardest hitting tracks, we can’t wait to see them put it down live next Friday.
Right Click to Download
Next up is a 30 minute guest mix for BBC’s Radio 1 by the Crookers. We haven’t heard much from these guys recently, but their newest LP, Tons of Friends, came out March 8th. Download the mix
Now your tracks for a warm, beautiful weekend. Enjoy
Beehive- St. Mandrew & JFK
This is the newest side project from JFK (1/2 of MSTRKRFT)Welcome (The Bloody Beetroots Remix)- Etienne De Crécy
Watcha Say (Afrojack Remix)- Jason Derulo
Doin’ It Right (Mini K Remix)- Cold Blank
Last night we had the pleasure of seeing turntable wizard turned singer-songwriter RJD2 at Le Tulipe. I won’t say too much about it now, but he put on an extraordinary performance complete with a DJ set, a live band, finger puppets and, to quote RJ, “the loudest round of applause I’ve ever gotten.” Needless to say, we can’t wait to go through our pictures. We’ll be posting those pictures as well as our take on the show in the next few days, definitely look out for that.
In the meantime, MGMT released ‘Flash Delirium,’ the first single from their upcoming album Congratulations, due out April 13th. This is the first time we’ve heard from these guys in a while, but we can’t wait to find out what else they come up with on their new album.
And our video of the day comes from the man of the hour himself, RJ. Enjoy ‘Work it Out.’
Portugal. The Man has just released their newest album, American Ghetto, on Equal Vision records, marking the beginning of a North American tour. This LP makes 6 full length albums on top of 5 EPs for the band since 2005, but American Ghetto comes across as little more than an attempt to simply beef up an already stacked discography. Don’t get me wrong, American Ghetto will serve anyone looking for a new Portugal. The Man fix; the album is rife with hazy-jazz guitar-riffs as well as some psychedelic and funky additions. But in terms of evolving their experimental sound, American Ghetto had the potential to be much more innovative.
It’s important for me to say that I enjoy listening to this album. The lightly-anthemic ‘All My People’ is packed with sweet, layered vocals accompanied by the classicly-smooth guitar riffs we have come to love from Portugal. The Man. In ‘1000 Years’ and ‘Do What We Do’ the band expertly utilizes a psychedelic air to accompany the more classic-rock foundation of the songs. There is no doubt, this is a quality album.
What surprised me, however, was the lack of real risks that Portugal. The Man took, especially as this album is will be accompanied by a tour. There is little new experimentation here, and to me, this album sounds like a continuation of The Satanic Satanist mixed with a heavy influence from their ‘07 EP It’s Complicated Being a Wizard, and little more. Granted, there is a lot of pressure on ‘experimental’ bands to produce new, innovative sounds for us greedy listeners, but it seems that a band like Portugal. The Man (who clearly have great music oozing from their fingertips, as is evidenced from their impressive doscog) should be up to the task. With more than one LP a year since 2005, I think that expecting something new from the band is not asking too much.
Something else that should be noted is that this album was released to the press, stores, and fans all at the same time, something that rarely occurs in today’s music scene.
Today marks the 13th anniversary of the day that Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G, was shot and killed in the middle of a busy Los Angeles street. We thought this called for a quick post in memory of the greatest MC of all time. R.I.P
Ready to Die- Notorious B.I.G.
Gimme The Loot- Notorious B.I.G.
Party and Bullshit (Ratatat Remix)- Notorious B.I.G.
