Living in Iceland must be so soothing. All the music that comes out of there (except for maybe those crazy punks Reykjavik!) is so ethereal and serene. Icelandic electro producer Bix is no exception, as he even recorded a track of spacey glitch-pop with Jonsi from fabled alt rock band Sigur Ros. It sounds like Múm floating through the stratosphere on a giant Air LP. Check out some of Bix’s songs below and unwind for a bit…
As you may have read, everything's been evening out these days. So, to even out the fact that today is my birthday, I give you The Death Set. And to even out my overwhelmingly positive attitude, the song of choice will be "Negative Thinking."
But e-goddamned-nough about me! The Death Set! In case you've been taking a nap in the bathtub, The Death Set is two skinny young punks with dopey hair who set up shop in the middles of basements and living rooms around the country, throw down their gloves and just go totally batshit mental, taking every living thing in earshot, eyeshot and noseshot with them. And it's not that angry-dudes-in-black-on-black-hats noise either. It's sugar. CANDY. Sisters. Brothers. Sisters! It's just plain berserk. The stuff of madman foamy-smile seizures. How can you not pump your arms until somebody gets hurt?!?! Remember that Mae Shi jam from a few weeks back? Remember Bert Hammond's old band the whatevers? Dudes. Same wave of raucous and ridiculous. I'm shimmying so hard, even now, as I type. Download, crank and ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh stroke the fuck out.
We’re really feeling New York-based dance-rock outfit The Glass right now, who have slowly but surely been taking over the downtown electro scene for a while now. The band are releasing a ton of songs on RCRD LBL today, so take your pick from the downloads below. They’re all pretty awesome, but our favorite has to be “Come Alive” from the album Couples Therapy, which is by far the spaciest and funkiest tune, like the Rapture if they were more Manchester 1992 and not Liverpool 1978. Enjoy!
Also, the Glass are playing Crashin' In at Hugs in Broolkyn tonight with Bunny Rabbit, who we featured a while back. Check out her songs too, and see you there!
Looks like the Prayers have unleashed their inner Britpop heroes for their new song “Guns of Marinello”, an ode to Scottish football great Peter Marinello. The song is a little softer, and dare we say more indie pop than most of the band’s other RCRD LBL singes (dare we say we hear a hint of the Sundays?) but that’s not a bad thing: if there’s one thing we’ve learnt from the San Diego guitar band is that their sound, while being totally transmutable, always works.
There are many things we love in this world, but more specifically, two of those things are Swedish Italo disco queen Sally Shapiro and Canadian bedroom rockers Junior Boys. So you can imagine our joy when the two are joined in matrimony under the sanctity of music: meaning that we have an exclusive stream of the Junior Boys remix of “Jackie Junior”, which is in turn a version of “Jackie Jackie” a Sally song that we’ve played around the office decidedly to death for the past year, and still love it. What Junior Boys have done is take the Italo essence of the tune and infuse it with their own singular brand of laid-back soft electro. Needless to say, this is for the bedroom dancers.
This stream come courtesy of Paper Bag records, who (news break!) are about to officially join the RCRD LBL family as a partner label! It’s all coming soon, so consider this a taste of what’s to come. If you’re into Sally, she’s just about to kick off her DJ tour with a date tonight at the Plug Awards, and tomorrow at the Mercury Lounge. Check out her MySpace for more info!
I advise you to listen to Panther with volume up and 3-d glasses on to get the full kaleidoscopic experience. In "Violence Diamonds," lead singer Charlie Salas-Humara's voice quakes, wails and screeches through this funkied piece- with "Rocky Horror Picture Show"-worthy vocal theatrics. Second, I don't know what a Puerto Rican Jukebox sounds like but if it's anything like Panther's version- it favors a beasting bass line, weird medicine-man chants, and heavy drum solos. It’s hard to believe all this sound is just coming from just two dudes: Charlie on vocals, cello and keys and Joe Kelly on drums. Check em at SXSW.
So remember those charming tykes the Stills, who back in 2003 were BFF with Interpol and released the Echo and the Bunnymen-inspired Logic Will Break Your Heart? They've had the obligatory "mature" sophomore album since then (2006's mixed bag Without Feathers) and shuffled members around a bit, and now have come out with a new single entitled "Snake - Charming the Masses". It's definitely another sharp turn to the left for the band, as it features tribal drums, crazy moaning reverbed vocals and is awash in a sea of distorted guitars. It's very Radiohead, and frankly although we miss the nonchalant "Lola Stars and Stripes" days, we could get behind a whole album that sounded like this. To be continued...
The SEEN RCRD LBL blog have gone Cornelius-crazy: they just posted two MP3s and a really long article about the Japanese electro composer. Cornelius is one of the founders of Shubuya-kei, the alternative Tokyo rock movement that spawned some of our favorite Japanese bands, like Buffalo Daughter and Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her. Head over to the SEEN blog for a little school lesson!
Q: What has caviar in a tube, death metal, and $3.99 text messages?
A: Professor Murder’s Scandinavian tour diary, of course.
P Murder just came back ashore from their first ever tour of Scandinavia, which went off without a hitch, evidence of which can be found presently on their RCRD LBL blog. Makes us want to wrap up warm and jump on the first plane to Stockholm.
The Murder have been releasing tracks off their RCRD LBL-exclusive Professor Murder on a Desert Island EP. Download them below for a midweek espresso-shot of amazing calypso vibes.
We first laid eyes on Whalebones last April from the back of a heady Big Sur roadhouse called Fernwood. It was the Folk Yeah Spring Festival and the band was from Seattle. And like any Northwest rock outfit worth their salt, they took their noodles crunchy, closed their eyes and used that wailer girlie harmony to absolute perfection. Very Crazy Horse. Borderline epic. Not to cop out or anything, but they're the kinda songs that you'd imagine sound their best in a van on a sunny day, close to some water. We're so so psyched, not only to get exclusive access to "Another Jungle," but to get lowdowns on both downloads from Whalebones songwriter, Justin Deary. Go ahead and freak out.
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