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31
May
2007 |
tags: rant. |
Jose Gonzalez announces new album.
The working title will be Quiet Scream. And it’ll be the first time he does his new, all-original, not-bastardized-from-elsewhere song “Little Squirrel Families Which Dwell In The Woods”.
Oh, fuck it. If you care (we at Res don’t), there’s news at StereoFork. Pitchgum. Something.
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25
May
2007 |
tags: Joy Division, videos. |
I have to admit, I’ve been leery on this one. But. It. Just. May. Work.
The trailer for “Control”, which, as of now, appears to have no U.S. release date.
Usually it’s Hacks that brings you the hot hot remix action, but this time…this time there’s something you absolute.
Have.
To.
Hear.
From long-time Res Mag supporter and purveyor of good tunage DJ Koob comes the mash-up that’ll be the mash up to end mash ups…at least for today:
DJ Koob: Skinny Puppy’s “Warlock” + Rap Cat
An apparent response to a friend’s request to “play Rap Cat” whilest DJing out, Koob’s just unleashed the power the of left side drive-through.
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23
May
2007 |
tags: Resonator Presents, Lismore. |
One of my favorite, slow-burning, wraps-around-your-subconscious-‘til-invading-your-daily-life bands of the past few years is Lismore. During our livejournal days, I wrote a quick missive on the Jersey City electro-glitch-drone-pop group (I believe I called them, and henceforth became quoted using this label, “prettydroneâ€).
As with all good things, Lismore bears repeating. Earlier this year, they released their home-made “It Takes Guts To Deceive So Eloquently†e.p., which indulged a bit more of their lo-fi indie rock sensibilities than had previously been shown on their lush-‘n-lovely debut album We Could Connect Or We Could Not. Now, they’re about to mid-point 2007 with another e.p., “All That You Areâ€-the title track from which is available, to quote that classical, lyrical poetic genius Norman “Fatboy Slim†Cook, right here right now:
If this is the direction Lismore’s going with their newest bunch of songs, I’m floored-they’ve always had a harbinger of full-on big-room 4/4 sensibility, but it’s more-oft-than-not controlled, moderated, by a desire to wrap their lusciously thick bass beats in a gauzy blanket of fuzz. This time around the fuzz is there, but rather than determining where the song goes it simply provides an undercurrent to the full-out frentic cut-and-splice dancey goodness. It all comes together with Penelope’s crystallized vocals to create something not unlike early-90’s WARP and today’s Monika Records throwing a party together. Prettydrone? Maybe last record-this is Prettyrave.
If there’s anyone that’s in love with the PrettyRave, it’s us here at Resonator Mag. That’s why, in conjunction with our friends at Wordsmiths Books and New Street Gallery, we’re proud to present the first-ever Resonator Sponsored show- two very, very special and awesome performances by Lismore, in Atlanta, GA, on June 29th.
At 7pm, they’ll be doing a acoustic-and-literary themed in-store at Wordsmiths Books in Decatur-and, later on in the evening, just a short hop, skip, jump down the road, they’ll be doing a full-on wrapped-in-’lectronics show at New Street Gallery.
More information will, obviously, be available as it comes together-but for the love of good music, you don’t want to miss this.
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22
May
2007 |
tags: The Black Ghosts, Remix, Mp3. |
I was in Vegas these past few days and while hoping for 3-4 nights of debauchery, I ended landing with a nasty fever and terrible stomach bug which kept be floored to my hotel the whole time.
What a waste.
Anyway, I’ve sucked as of late, and this is a little attempt to make up for it. I received a 30 mega-remix set from The Black Ghosts and I’m super excited for it (this means you should be as well). I’ve posted about them a few times on res and have used both remixes of and by them in many a deejay set. They are poised to be one of my favorite bands this coming year. Be sure to peep a listen and give them some loving.
The Black Ghosts
Following their new remix work - spicing up new singles by The Dykeenies (’New Ideas’) and Gossip’s forthcoming re-release of ‘Listen Up’, London duo The Black Ghosts have released details of a free exclusive 30 minute mix available for fans to download. The mix features 24 tracks ranging from Electrelane to Metronomy, The Whip to Beck all spliced together in typical Black Ghosts fashion (gothic-electro-pop).
www.myspace.com/blackghosts
www.myspace.com/theblackghostsremixes
30 Minute Mix May 2007 Track-list below the cut
Continue reading ‘Remix Makeup: The Black Ghosts’
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15
May
2007 |
tags: Rufus Wainwright. |
So,we stalled out with Bjork and some rant Trixie penned while drunk and yearning and being forced to dance, probably, to a horrendous mash-up of “Rumpshaker†and “Bird Flu†(called “Rump Fluâ€-you young folks get that one for free).
If life for you right now is anything at all nearing what it is on this end, you could use some tried-and-trusty. Trixie begged for sincerity? So does Rufus:
Rufus Wainwright: Do I Disappoint You?
The first song from Rufus Wainwright’s forthcoming Release The Stars travels familiar territory for any who made the Want One/Two trek into hell and back with the flamboyant balladeer-but it ups both intensity and accessability. The strings, the backing choir, Rufus’ damn-near shout, questioning to some unnamed force:
“why does it always have to be fire? Brimstone/? Desire?â€
The entire song is a call to be what you are-and the album as a whole is the best thing Rufus has done, ever. If you’ve ever found his stuff to be *too* much, shy away from “Release The Starsâ€. However, if you’ve ever wanted Rufus unleashed…have at it.
I’m sure Hacks will eventually post a JusticeKraft remix of this that sounds like kittens eating jerky in a blender. I’m excited.
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11
May
2007 |
tags: rant. |
Alright. Please. ENOUGH. This whole Indie Rock Dance Party Thing[tm] that started up a few years ago, that combined the most cutting edge, underground, not-yet-signed dance-punk with a handful of stupid top 10 pop tracks, 80’s hits that our older siblings wouldn’t have condescended to listen to if they’d been held at gun point, and the stupidest, blingiest of mainstream rap… What the HELL HAPPENED?! At what point did the dance punk (even the three year old, no longer cutting edge, raised-to-the-point-of-anthems dance punk) get thrown out in favor of pure “irony”? I use those quotation marks because it’s pretty clear to me that everyone just wants to dance to shit. To stuff they would NEVER admit to liking– which they’d never put on their iPod and would apologize for when it comes on their iTunes.
What inspired this rant? I just got back from what will most likely be my last weekend out in Manhattan for a LONG TIME. I paid $5 to listen to terrible ’80s tracks that even in my early childhood I thought sucked combined with top 20 hits of the last 5 years that I never believed ANYONE anyone actually liked who was over the age of 13. Apparently I was wrong.
Oh, Resonator readers… You know that it is not like me to make these vitriolic rants. It is more the domain of Shaun. I have always been the bastion of stupid idealism. But for FUCK’S SAKE can we end the Middle School Dance Party in Leggings? 2007 is a blessed time to be alive as far as music is concerned– between the genius of the Arcade Fire and Of Montreal and the danceability of Patrick Wolf, Simian Mobile Disco, the Klaxons, what could possibly be the excuse for playing “Wake Me Up (Before You Go)”?!
Manhattan, we are done when it comes to DJs.
As far as all of you who are enjoying the whole “I don’t really LIKE this music, but I’ll dance to shit rap and bad 80’s tracks because it’s CUTE” scene… Unsubscribe. Please. Because you are not our kind.
Yes, we’re snobs here at Res. We never claimed to be anything but. Open your ears for the good stuff… We’re not saying that you should be closed minded. What we’re saying is to have taste… That letting in EVERYTHING is not the same as being open to new things. You don’t even have to like everything we post (truth be told, WE don’t like everything we post– we disagree all the time).
But can we discontinue the stupid, ruinous ideal that says that hating on crap is the same as being a hater?
I blame the hipsterisation of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Can we please, ONCE AND FOR ALL, admit that at ANY price, this beer is crap? Can getting kids drunk on the worst beer known to man not be somehow related to making them dance to the worst music, as well? Put enough $1 (or $4) PBR in even the most discerning hipster, and they are probably going to love ANYTHING. That’s the problem. By setting themselves up for mediocrity… NAY… SHIT, by ingesting something terrible, can what is external to them seem comparably all that bad? Can we please end this fucking ironic love of all that lacks in quality?!
From now on, I’ll keep myself at Studio B when I want to dance. If I hear “Waterfalls” one more time when I’m somewhere that’s “hip,” I might just give up on humanity altogether.
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06
May
2007 |
tags: Antony, Bogdan Raczynski, Bjork, Remix. |
Homogenic will always hold for me as the greatest thing Bjork’s ever done-especially when that bottled up industrial fury overtakes “Plutoâ€. However, in recent years (after she perfected the idea of ballads with beats on the slow-but-lovely Vespertine), she’s jumped shark and simply been, if not unlistenable, entirely inaccessible-which, for Bjork, is saying a lot.
(for the record, I LOVED The Dancer In The Dark stuff-even if one viewing of the film caused me to go into a shivering panic for several hours.)
The sole saving grace of Medulla was when Bogdan Raczinski, old-skool beatsmith (kids: ask your folks), released the original version of “Who Is It?â€, allowing the wide-reaching, epic longing to be felt as it should be.
Bjork & Bogdan Raczinski: Who Is It? (shooting stars remix)
Yeah, you know what’s coming:
Well, with little introduction, no fanfare, no alarms, no surprise:
Volta, The new Bjork record is fucking great.
It comes as a pleasant surprise, a welcome frenzy, that the album’s lead-off single and first song “Earth Intruders†has Bjork and Timbaland creating a creepy woodland march with a not-so-veiled slag at America and war. Proof that Timbaland’s best when someone else is paying for the studio time, and the most refreshing thing to come from Bjork in nearly half a decade.
The sociopolitical message grows to a near-euphoric smash-and-grab with “Declare Independenceâ€, the sort of song that seemed improbable from Bjork but has always been in reach, given her long-time collaborator status with LFO’s Mark Bell, as a frenzy of skittering, proto-clubby punk sounds bend to Bjork’s vocal command. This is a fucking riot-a Bjork Teenage Riot. Fuck what you thought you knew about RavePunk:
Another early favorite for me on Volta is “Dull Flame Of Desire” the album’s first duet with Antony Hegarty (of Antony and The Johnsons fame, whose I Am A Bird Now album was a huge point of contention in the Res offices), whose beautiful, trembling voice treats Bjork’s fragile soundscape as though if touched it, and he, would shatter.
Bjork & Antony: Dull Flame Of Desire
All in all, Volta, at just a count-on-one-hand-with-fingers-left number of listens, isn’t going to swoop in and take the place of Homogenic, as songwriting-wise Bjork’s moved from the personal to the political. The sound fits her well, though, and Volta’s one of the most creatively awesome things 2007 hath wrought.
Bonus:
Bjork: Earth Intruders (Far and Away Remix)
Baring very, very little resemblance to the original until the epic end, this is proof that I haven’t “turned my back on the rave” (though Hacks and Trixie may argue otherwise), this shit is full-out hands-up big-room rocking. That will only mean something to you if you’ve ever made the decision on whether or not to go out based upon how much cash you had to spend on water.
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04
May
2007 |
tags: Tommie Sunshine, Lorn, Fall Out Boy, Kissy Sell Out, Switch, Klaxons, Mp3. |
I have 2 cds to give away for this remix column… so keep reading!
Ok, we here at Resonator have this weird love-hate thing with Tommie Sunshine. See he used to party it up in the same circuit we ran in here in Atlanta back in the good ole’ rave days so we have been familiar with him since “way back when”, if you will. He’s done some really spot on remixes of tracks, bringing “dance music” to the indie rock masses and he’s made some guilty pleasures that we wish we didn’t like, but can’t help but love.
The last time Shaun and I deejayed together, we dropped his remix of Fall Out Boy’s “Dance Dance” to a room-full of indie kids. They loved the first half where we looped the intro for like 3 mins, but once the vocal hit and they realized they where dancing to the F.O.B., well they cleared the room faster than jungle kids do when the hear “this is the police!”. Man that was fun.
Fall Out Boy - “Dance Dance (Tommie Sunshine Remix)”
But that was over a year ago! What has Tommie done for us lately??
Well, this:
Tommie Sunshine - “Dance Among the Ruins”
Its a cool little bouncy dance-rock track set to tantalize dance floors around the country. I thought this was a remix at first (and couldn’t place it) but its not. Its one of a handful of original works on his newest cd: Ultra Records-Ultra Rock Remixed!. Its a 2-disc set of both his remixes and original production work And guess what?
You can win a copy from us right now! Just simply leave me a comment and then shoot me your mailing address (hacks@resonatormag.com). First 2 comments win. Simple as that.
Check out the full details here: http://ultrarecords.com/tommiesunshine/
or visit him on TommieSpace
And, for your listening pleasure, here’s a few remixes by some of my favorites:
Switch
Klaxons - “Golden Skans(Switch Remix)”
Yuksek
Shitdisco - “Ok (Yuksek Remix)”
Kissy Sell Out
Kissy Sell Out - “Get Ready For The K Hole”
Lorn
Mr. Oizo - “Transexual (Lorn Remix)”
And, as an added bonus, here’s a sick piece of production that Lorn sent us:
<hacks>
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03
May
2007 |
tags: Candy-Coated Awesome Fluff, Mika, Album Reviews. |
Mika
Life In Cartoon Motion
Island Records 2007
Rating: candy-coated awesome fluff
This post was initially something else entirely. However, it’s amazing how a few good turns in the course of a day can take one from listening to The Scar-Jo and Mary Chain to something upbeat, pop-filled and confectionary, a summertime candyfloss for the ears and for the soul, something to inspire the wearing of hot pants and spangles and to decree, with a fey yawp, the desire to strut.
Struttin’ time? Struttin’ time. (After all-Ah’s the writer, Ah’s the one what says when it’s struttin’ time on Res Mag. STRUTTIN’ TIME. STRUTTIN’. TIME.)
And thus enters Mika
Mika entered the world late last year with a falsetto shimmy and a perfectly buoyant piece of piano pop in the form of his first single “Grace Kellyâ€. It was this song, an ode less to the namesake and more to the crises of identity that makes up his recently-released album Life In Cartoon Motion, that first introduced me to the bouncy glamourballadry of Mika. At first listen this, and everything on Life In Cartoon Motion, sounds like it could be ripped from the fluorescent polyester notebook of Jake Shears and his Scissors Sisters contemporaries, but that isn’t so. I’ve mentioned before on here that I’m not overly fond of the obnoxious camp that is the Scissors’ repertoire, and there’s none of that mistake of stupidisco for song-craft with Mika. Oh, he has utter moments of flat-out fabulous frivolity, as with the disco throb of ‘Relaxâ€, but this is the closest he’ll come to taking your momma out and forcing her to spend some speedy Saturday night hang with that obnoxious Anna Matronix and her chatty friends. Mostly, Mika’s more concerned with taking the proudly symphonic show-tune glee of piano-hottie Rufus Wainwright and using them as a shell in which to channel Freddie Mercury’s theatrics, a nod he even acknowledges as his other identity on “Grace Kelly†(and if “Big Girl You Are Beautiful†doesn’t just SCREAM “fat bottom girlsâ€, well, then, talk about mud flaps?).
Mika’s got both a gorgeous voice and a spot-on sense of what can make a silly song have a memorable impact, which is another thing the Scissors sorely lack-they obviously assume you can plug in a mirrorball and suddenly turn out worthwhile tunes. It’s why “Lollipopâ€â€™s hand-slap percussion, to the beat of double-dutch rope skipping and complete with a schoolyard interlude chanting “suckin’ too hard on your lollipop/love’s gonna get you down†is so creepy and catchy, and why the over-the-top egomania and frenzied guitar outro (again: Queen) of “Love Today†is nothing short of the ideal radio single. In fact, all of the songs on Life In Cartoon Motion, fortunately getting a huge push right now in the States, are perfect flip-flop tunes, the music equivalent of a beach read for blue states and Cosmo drinking. There’s nothing that’s going to change your life here, but there’s no end to catchy hooks, frenzied stomps and happy-ass strutting, not to mention coy little Mika’s pretty little silver-tongued come-ons and some of the fiercest piano caresses likely to be heard this summer.
When, on “Love Today”, Mika commands “Love Love Meâ€, it’s a tad redundant-at that point in the album, only a few songs in, already it’s impossible not to.
The first single from Life In Cartoon Motion-and it’s impossible not to love.
Mika’s little piece of creepy child-catcher skippy schoolkid heaven. He’s comin’ to seduce you with wax lips and red vines, Wolfy. Wach. Yourself. (and your Lil’ Wolf)
Mika: Love Today (Patrick Wolf’s “no, love me more, bitches” remix)
And here we have the hunter captured by the game-or something like that. Mika, vaguely resembling a cuter, glitterier version of Family Guy’s Herbert, persuades that “nice and sparkly” little Wolf-Boy to come over for Ice Cream Floats and a bit of a splash on the Slip-N-Slide. Innocent fun? Right. Just. Innocent. Fun.
The video for “Grace Kelly”, all whirlwind heat and spangles.
Mika’s obnoxiously cute bandwidth killer of a pretty confection website
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