Electronica

OMD: Live: Architecture & Morality & More
Posted on 04.25.08 by David Medsker @ 12:00 am

Give OMD credit for knowing the limits of their marketplace potential, and serving up a live record that is right in the wheelhouse of the very people (only people?) who would still consider buying an OMD album at this point in time. Live: Architecture & Morality & More, on paper, is a die-hard’s dream come true, a track-by-track performance of the band’s most highly regarded album, fleshed out with various hit singles from the rest of the band’s catalog. The execution, however, is another matter. The mostly down-tempo album doesn’t exactly leap out of the speakers, Paul Humphreys’ keyboard tracks lack the punch of their studio equivalents, and on the two songs where Humphreys sings lead (“Souvenir” and “(Forever) Live and Die),” his voice wavers all over the place. Such a tantalizing idea – how sweet would it be to see ABC do The Lexicon of Love, or the Human League do Dare, in a similar environment – but two more weeks of rehearsal would have done wonders. (Eagle Records)

OMD MySpace page


Division Day: Beartrap Island
Posted on 04.25.08 by James B. Eldred @ 12:00 am

Division Day sure is divided. They can’t decide if they want to be a punk rock band that occasionally branches out into electronic soundscapes, or an experimental electronic band that occasionally takes things up a notch with a tune you can actually dance to. Let’s hope they eventually settle on the former. When they kick up the speed, give their guitar player a real riff to play and let their singer yelp and scream for a bit, they stand out as something worth paying attention to. The energetic “Tigers” highlights the band’s ability to really sound unique when they aren’t afraid to plug their instruments in and let loose. Even better is “Ricky,” an amazing, sinister track with a great squealing guitar riff. Too bad the band seems to avoid doing anything like it for most of the album. It’s almost like Division Day don’t know their own strengths, shying away from explosive songs like “Ricky” and instead moping about in shoegaze purgatory. Of course there’s an audience for that (those My Bloody Valentine fans have to buy something) but it’s not nearly as fun. Oh, and their MySpace page has an awesome cover of Roxy Music’s “More Than This,” which is nowhere to be found on the album. Tease. (Eenie Meenie 2007)

Division Day MySpace page


Seen Your Video: Midnight Juggernauts, “Road to Recovery”
Posted on 03.21.08 by David Medsker @ 11:00 am

This is what Duran Duran’s Red Carpet Massacre should have sounded like.

For those who don’t know the back story, Duran Duran solicited the help of hip hop overlord Timbaland and his protégé Nate “Danja” Hills to oversee their last album. This idea was sixteen different flavors of bad, because Tim and Nate demand that they be the stars of their work, not the bands singing and playing the songs in question. Duran Duran were reduced to co-stars on their own album. Tragic.

The Midnight Juggernauts right every wrong that Duran made. The drum tracks are positively huge, second only to Daft Punk. The bass lines are fluid and rubbery – nothing on Red Carpet Massacre comes close to the bass line on “Shadows” – and the keyboards are layered without smothering everything around them. And here’s the best part: they’re a trio. That’s right, there are only three guys making all this sound, which I guess makes them the equal and opposite reaction to Wolfmother, and the dance doppelganger of Muse.

Their album Dystopia doesn’t land on US shores until May 27, but it already has a spot on my Best of ’08 list. I haven’t been this excited about a band since, well, Muse. Make sure and check out the clips for “Tombstone,” “Shadows” and “Into the Galaxy” as well.



Concerts
Road Warriors 56
Posted on 03.14.08 by Mike Farley @ 10:16 am

London’s Hyde Park is the site for the big 90th birthday party bash for former South African president Nelson Mandela. Among the artists scheduled to perform are U2, Paul McCartney, and Queen. Wow, what a lineup and what a tribute to Mandela.

Santana is planning a US tour beginning April 4 in Boston. For a full list of dates for the month-long tour, check out www.santana.com

In support of their Red Carpet Massacre album, Duran Duran will hit the road in North America beginning April 29 in Vancouver and running through May 31 in New York City. For more information, fans can visit www.duranduran.com.

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival seems to get bigger every year. The ninth annual event is scheduled to take place April 25-27 in Indio, California and some of the confirmed acts include Goldfrapp, Portishead, Jack Johnson, Death Cab For Cutie, Flogging Molly, Love and Rockets, Fatboy Slim, Tegan and Sara and Rilo Kiley.

Soulful singer/songwriter Marc Broussard has added dates to his spring tour in Athens, Georgia and Shreveport, Louisiana. Here is the complete list of shows:

Apr. 17 - 40 Watt Club - Athens, GA - For more info click here. For tickets click here. Support Act: Angie Aparo

Apr. 18 - Artisphere - Greenville, SC - For more info click here.

Apr. 22 - Blue Moon Saloon - Lafayette, LA - For more info click here. For tickets click here.

Apr. 24 - House of Blues - Dallas, TX - For more info click here. For tickets click here. Support Act: k.s. rhoads

Apr. 25 - Antone’s - Austin, TX - For more info click here. For tickets click here. Support Act: k.s. rhoads

Apr. 26 - Warehouse Live - Houston, TX - For more info click here. For tickets click here. Support Act: k.s. rhoads

Apr. 27 - The Warehouse - Shreveport, LA - For more info click here. For tickets click here. Support Act: k.s. rhoads

May 24 & 25 - Blues, Brews, & BBQ Festival - Avon, CO - For more info click here.

Aug. 29 - Strawberry Music Festival - Yosemite, CA - For more info click here.


Mix Disc Monday: I hate myself for loving this song
Posted on 02.25.08 by David Medsker @ 10:00 am

Guilty pleasures. We all have them. Actually, I never had any until recently, because I figured that if I didn’t feel any shame about liking a song, then it wasn’t a guilty pleasure. Ah, what a naïve child I once was. I surely should have known that music would turn on me and become something I didn’t like, and then that something I didn’t like would create something I liked (ahem, “I Want It That Way”).

So I was inspired to reexamine my CD collection and cast a hairy eye at which songs have not exactly held their own against Father Time. I still like all of the songs on this list, mind you; let’s just say I have since come around to understanding why others may disagree with me.

I Beg Your Pardon,” Kon Kan (Move to Move)
I think the laconic vocal is what hooked me, as opposed to some over-sampled tenor like Dino or Paul “Boom Boom, Let’s Go Back to My Room” Lekakis. I remember, as early as the following year, someone played that song at our local college dance bar, and as people were leaving, they were mock-imitating the keyboard riff. Not much of shelf life for this one.

Strawberry Fields Forever,” Candy Flip (Madstock…)
It must have been the use of “Funky Drummer” in a cover version of one of my all-time favorite songs. That clearly blinded me to the breathier than breathy vocal, the impossibly slow BPM, and, well, pretty much everything else about it.

Hello,” The Beloved (Happiness)
It’s a List Song, which is always a bad sign. When the choruses consist of the names of celebrities, followed by “Hello, hello, hello, hello,” you should know straight away that you are not dealing with a band that’s going to change the world. Especially when two of the celebrities paired together are Willy Wonka and William Tell. In the interest of full disclosure, I have granted a full List Song pardon to Simple Minds’ “Up on the Catwalk,” because the drums are just too damn cool.

Hella Good,” No Doubt (Rock Steady)
I was very, very late to the No Doubt party, and then as soon as I started to like them, they started falling apart. The individual tracks to this intrigue me – I can totally envision Arthur Baker working his mid-‘80s mojo on it – but truth be told, there isn’t much of a song here.

View the rest of the list after the jump.


Concerts
Road Warriors 53
Posted on 02.22.08 by Mike Farley @ 1:49 pm

Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder will take off on a short West Coast solo acoustic tour, calling it the April Fools Tour, beginning April 2 in Vancouver. Before you go buy tickets, I’d make sure that April Fools doesn’t mean what I think it means. Here are the dates:

4/2 Vancouver The Centre
4/5 Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
4/7 Berkeley Zellerbach Theatre
4/10 Santa Barbara Arlington Theatre
4/12 Los Angeles Wiltern Theater
4/13 Los Angeles Wiltern Theater
4/15 San Diego Spreckels Theater

“American Idol” Season 6 champ Jordin Sparks had a thrill a few weeks back when she sang the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLII before her dad’s former team, the Giants, beat New England in the game. The 18-year-old Sparks will now hit the road in support of her debut album with pop mega-star Alicia Keys. Here are the (more…)


Concerts
Road Warriors 51
Posted on 02.08.08 by Mike Farley @ 3:30 pm

In the last season of New York Mets’ home Shea Stadium, Billy Joel will be the last musical performer to play there, on July 16. Other acts over the years that have played the stadium include The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Police, Eric Clapton, Elton John and Bruce Springsteen.

Jack Johnson recently released his new album, Sleep Through the Static, and while there are no confirmed US tour dates aside from Bonnaroo, Johnson will be touring in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. For more information, please visit www.jackjohnsonmusic.com

Canadian songstress Feist will be touring North America again, with dates kicking off April 10 in Detroit and running through May 13 in Toronto. She will also be performing at the Grammys this Sunday.

Finger Eleven’s rescheduled dates co-headlining with Chevelle have been announced. The band’s song “Paralyzer” has been a Top 5 hit (more…)


WTF?! Flashback - Enigma
Posted on 02.05.08 by Jason Thompson @ 8:54 am


MCMXC A.D.

Face it: you knew someone who owned or has owned this album. You yourself may fall into one of those categories as well. Basically, anyone who merely had a passing interest in dance music in 1990 undoubtedly got down to some Enigma, particularly the smash single “Sadeness Part 1.” Musical alchemist Michael Cretu managed to mix New Age downbeat boogie with Gregorian monk chants and turned everyone on to the tune of millions of cha-chings! Yep, even I fell for it more due to a sheep mentality than an actual like for the stuff, and somewhere my cassette copy is languishing in a basement collecting dust.

MCMCXC A.D. was successful enough that new CDs of just chants alone were becoming hot sellers. Cretu had created a monster, one that was crossing boundaries from the dance floor and VH-1 to car stereos and - perhaps more importantly - bedrooms of listeners who used the disc as part of their sex play. However, it’s hard to imagine that the plain Jane chant CDs themselves got as much attention once the hip factor of going back to the source sans beats wore off (and I have a feeling for most that probably wore off after the first minute of play).

To my ears, the album is now even more of a goofy curio than it was originally. It’s a complete style over substance recording, but the legions of Enigma fans still swear by it, as well as the followup album The Cross of Changes, which went in a slightly different, but no less flighty direction. Indeed, Cretu has managed to keep the Enigma name going all these years, with varying results. But it’s MCMCXC A.D. that will forever be the biggie of the catalogue. But then again, it was the same year that everyone was throwing tons of money and attention at Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer, so anything was truly possible in 1990.


“Her Majesty’s Cowboy Bebop”
Posted on 02.03.08 by Jason Thompson @ 10:35 pm

User angerbunny at YouTube made this groovy video mixing up clips from “Cowboy Bebop The Movie” with music by the Propellerheads. Dig it.



DMed’s Video of the Week: Kylie Minogue, “Wow”
Posted on 02.01.08 by David Medsker @ 12:00 pm

Note to Gwen Stefani: This is what your solo records should sound like.
Note to the United States: What the fuck is wrong with you?

Kylie Minogue has gone to Number One in every major country in the world…except for the US. Here, she has two Top Ten singles (which are also her only two Top 20 singles). In England, she has seven Number One singles, 30 Top Tens, and 40 Top 20 singles. Forty. Here, two. Jesus.

We really want to think that she notches her third Top 20 hit with “Wow,” from her upcoming album X. This is catchy as all hell, and Idolator summed it up perfectly when they described the style as stormtrooper chic. Was Daft Punk involved with this song? That EQ fade-out at the end certainly sounds like something from their Alive 2007 set. Give it to me, baby. Uh huh, uh huh.


DMed’s Video of the Week: Goldfrapp, “A&E”
Posted on 01.18.08 by David Medsker @ 10:00 am

It’s the middle of January, and we already have a contender for Video of the Year. The beginning looks like a Sarah McLachlan cliché gone horribly wrong, with Alison Goldfrapp dressed in white lying on the ground in a forest, magic-hour light cascading down on her. Then she stands up, and you see that she’s wearing a white top, and nothing else. Suddenly, two leaf men sprout out of the ground, and the silliness begins. Even better is Dave Gregory’s appearance at the very end.

The money shot comes at the 1:26 mark, when Alison lifts her arms Scott Stapp-style, and you’re pretty sure you’re about to see something you’re not supposed to. Of course, you don’t, but hot damn, is it a fabulous tease.



DMed’s Video of the Week: Moby, “Alice”
Posted on 01.11.08 by David Medsker @ 9:00 am

There should be a warning label with this video, something along the lines of the “Happy Fun Ball” skit on “Saturday Night Live.”

- Those who are pregnant or may become pregnant should not watch “Alice”
- Those who suffer from vertigo should not watch “Alice”
- Do not consume excessive amounts of alcohol before watching “Alice”
- Do not taunt “Alice”

Simply put, this is not an easy video to digest. On the plus side, Mr. Melville seems to have gotten back in touch with his former self to create a dizzying hip-hop track that is equal parts Play and Everything is Wrong. Here’s hoping that the rest of the record lives up to that potential.



Ruby Tuesday: Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, “It’s Grim Up North”
Posted on 12.18.07 by David Medsker @ 4:45 pm

After tumbling down the remix rabbit hole in the mid to late ’80s, the unthinkable happened: the scene changed on me. By the early ’90s all hell was breaking loose in the clubs. House music pretty much wiped my favorite kinds of dance records off the map (mostly dance oriented rock, or DOR as they once called it). That, combined with my remix hero Shep Pettibone’s sudden retirement, left me in no man’s land. EMF producer Ralph Jezzard made some nifty mixes, but he didn’t make enough of them. I slowly stopped paying attention to remixes at that point.

Then one day my old DJ buddy Paul MacDonald sends me a dozen cassettes with assorted remixes and such on it. One of them was called Techno Mixes. Techno, at one point, meant New Order and Nitzer Ebb. By this point it meant Orgy and Moby. This new techno frightened and confused me, but I pressed on. Most of the tunes were pretty harmless, really. They stole lines from movies, TV shows, educational films, what have you, and surrounded them with shrieking synthesizers. There was a tune called “Sesame’s Treat” that amused me. “LSD is the Bomb” had a cool drum track, and someone even sampled the theme to “Halloween” for a song. Meh.

And then I heard “It’s Grim Up North,” and my jaw hit the floor.

Officially credited to the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, “It’s Grim Up North” is the KLF in disguise (though not really in disguise). Released in late 1991, the band had made some inroads on the American charts earlier that summer, but “Grim” was playing a completely different sport than their Top Five hit “3 A.M. Eternal.” Those songs were bouncy: “It’s Grim Up North” was industrial grit, complete with screaming steam whistles. Bill Drummond’s lyrics are nothing but lists of cities in northern England (you can find a list on the song’s Wikipedia page), spoken in bleak monotone. And then, after pummeling and pounding the listener for eight minutes, the drums give way to the hymn “Jerusalem,” steam whistles still screaming in the background. Hell, yes.

The song didn’t convert me to the then-new techno scene, but it did serve as one hell of a last hurrah to my golden age of dance. “Sesame’s Treat,” on the other hand, hasn’t held up so well.

Justified Ancients of Mu Mu - It’s Grim Up North.mp3


Concerts
Road Warriors 39
Posted on 11.09.07 by Mike Farley @ 9:29 am

John Mellencamp is vowing to make his current tour more about the songs and songwriting than about doing rousing choruses of certain songs. What? Does that mean he’s going to take that horrible “This is Our Country” song out of his set, or at least play a short version of it? How about just a verse and a chorus?

UK Brit Pop band Polytechnics are unsigned but have quite the buzz going, and this month will showcase for labels in both New York and Los Angeles. Here are the dates where you can check them out:
Nov 16 @ Mercury Lounge NEW YORK
Nov 14 @ Spaceland LOS ANGELES

Matchbox Twenty has just announced tour dates and their schedule is posted on the band’s MySpace page at www.myspace.com/matchboxtwenty.

Former Tonic lead singer Emerson Hart is on tour and playing acoustic sets with a stripped down three-piece band. According to Hart, this helps him relate to his own music, and offers a better concert experience for his fans.

The Donnas are on tour in support of their seventh album, Bitchin’. This month they are in Europe after finishing a two-month leg of US dates. Here is the current (more…)


Deep Cuts
Deep Cuts: Soundtracks
Posted on 11.05.07 by David Medsker @ 11:22 am

There was a time when the soundtrack ruled, dude. Bands would actually beg their managers to get them on the soundtrack to a hit movie. By the mid-‘90s, however, the tables had turned; bands would hold out for more money before they agreed to have their song appear on a soundtrack, since the bands figured that putting their next big hit on some nameless soundtrack would cost them untold thousands of copies sold of their next record. The labels wouldn’t pay, the bands kept the songs for themselves, and boom, the soundtrack was dead, just like that.

This list is a tribute to one writer’s favorite songs from his favorite soundtracks. The rules for what made a soundtrack Deep Cut were simple: it can’t have been released as a single and, in an effort to keep the pool of eligible songs somewhat reasonable, it can’t have been written for the movie in question. The beauty of a list like this is that it’s open to interpretation, so expect sequel after sequel of this list to appear in the near future. But for now, Mr. Brit Pop is in charge, and he’s taking names. Tom Hanks, please step forward….

“Why Do Good Girls Like Bad Boys,” Angel & the Reruns (“Bachelor Party”)
Any fan of the Waitresses will love this sax-filled New Waver. When explaining why bad boys like good girls, the answer, of course, is “he must want to be the first / To make her little bubble burst / Shock her with his attitudes / Get her hooked on beer and ‘ludes / Make her parents think she’s nuts / And all her friends will hate her guts.” Absolutely of its time, which is what makes the song so awesome.

“All the Young Dudes,” World Party (“Clueless”)
When Karl Wallinger decides to cover something, he is not one to stray too far from a song’s original arrangement – his version of “Penny Lane” is nearly note-for-note – and that’s a good thing. A World Party cover version is less about a radical reinterpretation, like our good friend Carmel did with the previous entry, and more about how incredibly cool Wallinger’s voice sounds singing, well, anything. Bullz-Eye associate editor Will Harris saw World Party cover “A Day in the Life” at a show once. I think I hate him.

“Kelly Watch the Stars (Moog Cookbook remix),” Air (“Splendor”)
No, I had never heard of the movie “Splendor” either, but when I saw its soundtrack in a bargain bin and read the track listing, it was the “Yoink!” heard ‘round the world. The general premise is that it features new remixes to various UK artists, along with a few assorted B-sides and single edits. What those pranksters known as the Moog Cookbook did to Air’s mellow jam “Kelly Watch the Stars” is hard to put into words, but I’m pretty sure that George Clinton has had made sweet, sweet love while this was playing in the background, if that helps.

“Papua New Guinea,” Future Sound of London (“Cool World”)
Much like “Until the End of the World,” the soundtrack for “Cool World” was received far better than the movie it represented. Look at that track listing: David Bowie produced again by Nile Rodgers, Electronic with Neil Tennant singing lead, the Cult produced again by Rick Rubin, Moby getting his first major label exposure, and Ministry just beating the snot out of everything in sight. In between all of these bands was a pair of British unknowns who turned a Dead Can Dance sample into something that could both pack a dance floor and seduce your girlfriend. Trust me, Brad Pitt would want you to remember it this way.

To view the rest of the list, click here.


previous posts »

Sections
Home
Artists
Songs
Interviews
Deep Cuts
Get to Know
Mix Disc Monday
CD Reviews
Lost Bands
Playlists
Lists
Concerts
Concert CDs
Concert DVDs
Music DVDs
Radio
Online Radio
News

Genres
Pop
Rock
Alternative
Rap
Hip Hop
Electronica
Country
Blues
Jazz

Google

More Music
Bullz-Eye Music
ESDMusic.com
Rolling Stone
Yahoo! Music
All Music
MySpace Music
Insound
Metacritic
MTV
VH1
iTunes
Napster
Rhapsody
EMusic

Black Mountain Blogs
Premium Hollywood
The Scores Report
Cleveland Scores

Sponsor Links
Purchase Tickets
Shakira Tickets
RBD Tickets
Pherlure Cologne

Syndication
RSS 2.0
Comments RSS 2.0
WordPress

Credits & Copyright
Proudly powered by WordPress. All content © 2004-2005 Author
Theme by Theron Parlin

Recent Comments

Archives
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005