NYC Tricks

Short post today as I have to get ready for my trip to NYC this weekend. It'll be strange to be back on the old stomping grounds for Halloween, but I predict lots of shenanigans that should bring the nostalgia right back, likely followed up with vomiting and a hangover that should erase it again. And to my NYC listeners, if you're free Sat & Sun, come by the Pier of Fear at Pier 54. It's a festival for rich-ass Battery Park families to frolic and enjoy a generally inoffensive Halloween weekend, but The Maze of Horrors has slowly evolved from a clever diversion for the older crowd to the best haunted house in Manhattan (according to the NY Post, at least). Best of all, it's free, but it sells out very quickly, so get down to Pier 54 early on to reserve your spot. It runs from noon to 9 pm. More info is right HERE.

One thing I'll be listening to a lot on the plane ride over is Deerhunter's new double-album, Microcastle/Weird Era Contd..., whose leak-riddled history is too complicated to even broach discussing here. All you need to know is it's one of the best releases of the year, and another notch in the belt for Atlanta's red hot music scene.


------------Song of the Week---------------

Deerhunter - "Nothing Ever Happened"



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Catfish Haven is a rough-n-tumble indie act from Chicago, whose new album was released at the beginning of the month. It's fun, slightly gritty stuff that's antithetical to the anti-melodic trend in indie rock these days. You can buy Devastator at i-tunes. Here's the title track:


Catfish Haven - "Devastator"

A lot of time has passed since I last wrote about Lady Gaga on my Muxtape blog last Spring, and in that time she's gone from a buzzworthy act with the potential to kick pop music's ass to one of the most over-exposed acts on the net (thanks in large part to He Who Shall Not Be Named). That unpleasantness aside, I'd still argue that "Just Dance" was the scenesters' song of Summer '08, and I've enjoyed listening to the other tracks that have been steadily leaking from Gaga's deput LP, The Fame, and this past week, the album has been officially released. Buy it now if you're into some dirty, sexy pop shit. It's the perfect Halloween treat: it's fun and sugary, even if it carries a severe risk of tooth (or mind) decay.


Lady Gaga - "Poker Face"

Finally, here's a classic for all of my NYC friends. Let's make the most of our time this weekend, as this is what I'll be singing come Monday night.


Conor Oberst - "NYC-Gone, Gone"

Blowing Up

So Shark Party is now a part of The Hype Machine, which is exciting news, but also slightly terrifying: within a matter of hours after being added, my bandwidth had maxed out, and my e-mail was full of notices from new bands sending me their mp3s. Step one in solving this problem was upgrading my account (obviously) to get my bandwidth back, and step two was getting a seperate e-mail just for the site. Unfortunately, the surge of new downloads doesn't appear to be easing up, so I'm devising a creative step three. As for the time being, I figured I should make my first official post full of a bunch of artists few will have heard of, and few will be searching for (at least not yet......hopefully they will soon, since they're all pretty good and all). Let's hope it gives my bandwidth enough air to breathe for a bit. Overall of course, despite the new stress, this is an opportunity to reach exponentially more readers, so if it's your first time here, welcome & enjoy the site.

When is a side project really a side project? Don't ask Spencer Krug that question, as the answer might make everyone's head hurt, and apparently don't ask Daniel Rossman, who, despite reaching a much wider audience by being a songwriter for indie darlings Grizzly Bear, was first a member of "electronic folk" (I know, I know, but give me a better way to describe it) duo Department of Eagles, formed at my alma mater of NYU. Instead of leaving co-founder Fred Nicolaus in the dust, Rossman has now returned to release another LP from the group, which sounds decidedly like, well, like Grizzly Bear. That is, if Grizzly Bear were locked in a haunted cabin deep in the woods, and decided to do a few drugs. Not a ton, but just enough to get a little paranoid. The final product is mellow but far from calming. It's engaging stuff, and makes me proud to call both men Fighting Violets (yes, we did in fact have the gayest school mascot ever. What of it? Wanna fight?). You can buy the band's new LP, In Ear Park right now on i-tunes.


Department of Eagles - "No One Does it Like You"

Speaking of bands that conjure up the spirit of Grizzly Bear (and thus, obviously the Beach Boys) comes New York's Air Bombay, who'd also go down well with fans of Beirut and Okkervil River. The brand-spanking-new band hasn't released an official EP yet, but the songs they've posted RIGHT HERE have a lot of promise, especially "Norway". The songs carry through with the jetsetting theme of the band, both in tropical arrangements and in subject matter. It's the kind of music you might put on to read a book, only to discover it stealing your attention away a couple minutes in, and never letting go. In addition to songwriting skills and a cool band concept, however, these guys have a great fucking side-note: singer/keyboardist Andrew Kaladjian's last project was L'Homme Run, a hip-hop duo with Vampire Weekend lead singer Ezra Koening at Columbia University. Between this experiment & the formation of Department of Eagles, it's safe to say today's topic might almost be the joys of a Manhattan higher education, but I'd never allow that. All I have is one phrase and one word to search: "Pizza Party"....and 'awesome'. Happy hunting. Of course, that was then, and Air Bombay is now. Check out "Norway" below, and keep an eye on these guys: they're clearly just warming up, and where they go from here should be very intriguing.


Air Bombay - "Norway"

So I just got back from French weirdo-folk chantruese, Soko's first show on US soil, semi-secretly held at The Bardot (the new lounge occupying the old Spyder Club space above Avalon), and it was quite a night. Not cause she was incredible or anything, but because I got nice and drunk, before having a glass thrown at my back by a certain socialite/"actress"/party accessory who felt I was blocking her view. I won't drop her name, as her lawyers can most likely eat mine for lunch, but the bottom line is: Hooray for Hollywood. Anyway, in case you've never heard of her, Soko's like a French Cory Kennedy, except she's actually talented at something; that something being songwriting (though she's also an ex-actress). Unfortunately for Soko tonight, she was acting fucking wasted & that inhibited her performance. Fortunately, her charm has little to do with excellence of execution: half the fun of watching her tonight was trying to see if she could competently play her own songs, even for the ones where she was on drums with no accompaniment. In other words: fuck all, this crazy French chick's got charisma to spare. Even if she never got around to playing what's by far her best song. Overall, she played for almost 90 minutes to a scenester-ific crowd more concerned by why Kirsten Dunst just fled the party than the music right in front of them, and yet managed to win the majority of them over by the end. She even got a few to clap along, then meow like kittens, which alone is worthy of admiration. Soko's got no official EP as of yet, but a number of impressive singles are floating around, like this one below:


Soko - "I'll Kill Her"

Nothing more to placing this next song than the fact that it cleansed my palette after a very Hollywood evening.........okay I guess I have to talk about them, so that I'm not just giving away an mp3. The Guillemots are a bird-obsessed band fronted by Fyfe Dangerfield. Their first LP, 2006's Through the Windowpane, was a triumph of post-Clash Joe Strummer-style rock and copious horns. The band has a new single out, signaling that a new LP is most likely nigh, but this was the song that sobered me up in the car tonight, and the song that I'm now humming, so here you go:


The Guillemots - Trains to Brazil

Finally, here's datapuddle (which I think I'm supposed to keep in all lower case), aka Alex Data and Steve Puddle, a new band from London that churns out progressive rock, with some fairly experimental production layered on top. And yes, to get it over with, one point of inspiration for them might be another British band that starts with an R and ends in adiohead, but there's far more to dissect here than what's found from that obvious comparison. For starters, I'm sure I've never heard half the random objects used to record this album. Hollow clangs, rip-cord buzzes and various bleeps and bloops litter the songs with a sound both technically precise and entirely organic, like some of the best National tracks mixed with a CD of city soundscapes. The band's first LP, the wonderfully titled monkeyskymokey (note to all: I like monkeys), is available for purchase HERE, and the band's Myspace profile is @ http://myspace.com/datapuddle (for some truly bizarre reason, the html won't let me post a link so close to another). Here's one of the simpler, yet most impressive tracks on the album. If you dig the sound, I definitely recommend checking the rest out as well. The vocals are cathartic, and each track is packed full of pleasant surprises.

datapuddle - "SloGO"




And remember.....be nice to my bandwidth :) (ps: you know I've been drinking if I'm utilizing emoticons. Tip of the day.)

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UPDATE: I started this post at 4 AM then went to sleep at 5 AM before sending it. For the sake of preserving history, aka my first inebriated post, I still approve of it the morning after.

The USA is Where It's At

So I'm back in the country after my extended trip to Buenos Aires & unfortunately I've got no cool, underground Argentinian rock to share, as all anyone seemed to listen to there was ungodly trance/techno/house (really, what's the difference, can someone enlighten me?) shit. But the music world has been blazing nontheless in my absence, and I'm eager to share some of it. God Bless the USA (and countries that send us their music):

I guess before I go any further, I have to address the first show I attended since I came back; one that I'd been looking forward to for a few months. My favorite new band, Jukebox the Ghost, played the Echo Friday night, marking their first ever LA gig, and seemed to win over a truckload of new fans (my friend included), many of whom came for headlining band Say Hi. The set was preceded by an epic sound-check which became a performance in and of itself, but the labor was worth it: the band sounded better than any act I've ever heard at The Echo. Nearly every word, drumbeat and note was crystal clear, which is no easy feat, as many who've endured the venue's sound-system can attest. As for the actual substance of the performance, yeah, they pretty much nailed that too. I've been listening to the band's debut LP all summer, and while a couple of my favorite tracks were left off the set, the ones that made it sounded even better live. To boot, I briefly spoke to each band member after the show, and they were all incredibly cool. Not that you probably assumed they were dicks or anything. I'm just saying. Buy Let Live & Let Ghosts (or singer Ben Thornewill's excellent solo LP) on i-tunes now if you dig Ben Folds 5, Billy Joel, or They Might Be Giants. Or good music, really. It'll definitely be making my top ten list later this year. To my NYC readers; make sure you check them out in the coming weeks. It looks like they're playing a bunch of shows in the city, sadly just before I get into town. In the meantime, check out a new track they showed off last night below, or preview their other songs right HERE on their Myspace.


Jukebox the Ghost - "Nobody" (live for woxy.com)

Obviously, the only things people have been wanting to talk about in the two weeks since my last post are Britney and Kanye, neither of whom need my publicity, but neither of whom I'd feel like posting about anyway. The former because I'm not in a campy mood (or else I would have posted Jukebox the Ghost's badass Ace of Base cover...that's right) and the latter because, quite frankly, I don't know what to make of what he's doing right now. The second, mastered version of "Love Lockdown" has slowly grown on me, but the two other tracks that leaked this week honestly haven't knocked me off my feet. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely intrigued. I'm just not sure there's anything worth highlighting out of context yet. Whatever 808s and Heartbreak is, it's at least a risky experiment from an artist who could be content to stay in autopilot, and for that reason alone it's going to be debated tirelessly for a while. So I'll give it a rest til it actually comes out. But as I generally try to include at least one mainstream artist in these posts, I guess I'll toss in a little ditty that this guy quietly released. Apparently he's up to something big. And if this track is any indication, it's also going to be back-to-basics awesome.....


Eminem - "I'm Having a Relapse"

In more white rap news (and two white rap songs in a single post has to be a record for Shark Party thus far), The Streets released Everything is Borrowed, his 4th LP, in the States the other week, and while it's not his best work, there are still some solid songs. The title track is definitely one of these, but as it's been circulating for a while now, I figured I'd sample something fresher. Even on an off day, Mike Skinner remains a legend. Everything is Borrowed is available now.


The Streets - "Heaven for the Weather

Gin Widmore is a brand new, 21 year old, super-hot import from Australia, who's quietly building some buzz. This means she's probably annoying as fuck in real life; the type of girl whose idea of the US is buying leg-tight Tsubis in Nolita, performing an "impromptu" set at Pianos in the LES, air-kissing at Socialista, crashing at the Mercer or the Bowery hotel, then flying home, most likely lecturing strangers on the benefits of Parliamentary government and using the phrase, "Sweet Azz", the entire time. Sorry, but I have an unhealthy exhaustion towards NYC/Australian hipsters. Anyway, whatever Gin Widmore the future It Girl may be (and call me cynical, but really, give it a year), Gin Widmore the artist is really fucking talented, with a unique voice and some solid songwriting skills. And I can't get this song out of my head.

--------------------Song of the Week-----------------------
Gin Widmore - "Under My Skin"



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Finally, sit back, relax and enjoy the kind of music that would puzzle the shit out of the South American trance-heads I met all week: Raw, ugly and shameless garage rock from everyone's favorite Tennessee whackjob, Jay Reatard. His new singles collection is now out on i-tunes, and it's very, very good, providing some pulsing riffs while managing to be his most accessible work yet. Even if you're not feeling this halfway through, hold on. Like the best garage rock, the ending ties the whole thing together.


Jay Reatard - "See/Saw"