Welcome Back... Again

In the words of one of Britney Spears's several songwriters "It's Been Awhile..." No I'm not here to break the ice, but re-up the blog instead. I promised myself I'd be a work machine this last month, and now that the uncomfortable "I'm new" period is conquered, I can finally relax a little, write a little, get my tune on. Until I get my second job. He-yo!

Things seem to be status quo; I'm overwhelmed with new music as usual, so here's just a little mix of my current heavy rotation to ease us back in. If you can spot which songs are a result of new television shows then you are amazing. Or have no life. Sometimes the two go hand in hand, don't they?

Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance (Twelves Remix) [ysi]
Marcelo D2 - Meu Samba e Assim [ysi]
Ratatat - One [ysi]
Atmosphere - Shoulda Known [ysi]
I plan on giving you my top ten reasons to buy "When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold" The album just dropped on April 22 and it's amazing. Go out and buy a physical copy though, there's so much extra/bonus content then what itunes offers.

The Cool Kids - I (Mikey) Rock [ysi]
I can't wait for these guys to release an album. They need a little more lyrical flow work, but beats and originality are offered up in spades.
Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes [ysi]
The Kooks - Always Where I Need to Be [ysi]
Also an amazing new album. Just try and resist the dance-ability of this record.
The Kills - Sour Cherry
The only track that's actually from television - I lied about there being a lot. Can you guess which guilty pleasure show span this record for its latest promos? It was also recently featured as the free song of the day on a certain public radio podcast download.
AA Bondy - Black Rain, Black Rain [ysi]
Cut Copy - Lights and Music [ysi]
THE most talked about band out there right now. Stellar follw-up...

Get Ur Groove on Radiohead

Everyone's been talking about the Radiohead remix contest this week. Pretty self-explanatory if you've looked on any music blog or music service lately. Apple and Radiohead are offering five stems of the song (guitar, drums, bass, etc) as well as the original version of "Nude" for sale, with the opportunity/challenge for fans to create the ultimate remix, upload it to www.radioheadremix.com where other fans can vote on your rendition until May 1st. There is no mention of a prize, but knowing Radiohead I'm sure there is one. I can't wait to see what other people have created, seeing as I don't have the patience to spend hours on GarageBand making one myself. Good luck remixers - don't let me down!

Till we find out whose remix will rule, get your groove on with the Paul Oakenfold's 2008 remix of "Everything in it's Right Place." I'm busting a move to it right now.

Radiohead - Everything in It's Right Place (PO 2008 Remix) [ysi]

To Love and Despise Kimya Dawson

Juno fans listen up. Moldy Peaches fans get in on this too. We all know Kimya Dawson is adorable; as part of MP and the musical inspiration for the Juno soundtrack (handpicked by Ellen Page) of course we've been exposed to some of her music. Of course we love it. But is it possible, and hear me out, that we can sometimes DESPISE it too?! When I first picked up the Juno tunes, I found myself enjoying Kimya's childlike songs immensely, but only after separating her tracks from the others by The Kinks, Mott the Hoople, Cat Power, Buddy Holly and the rest. There is absolutely no easy flow between the sounds of classics like "A Well Respected Man" and Kimya's honest attempt at pregnant-teenage-sixteen-year-old theme music.

Kimya Dawson - Loose Lips [ysi]
Kimya Dawson - So Nice So Smart (My fav from the film) [ysi]

I thought I was crazy there for awhile, rocking my two separate Juno playlists. The soundtrack was number one on itunes for weeks, and is one of 2008's top sellers so far. It's not that I don't appreciate Kimya, cause I love her. And though I can only take her music in small doses, I consider her a brilliantly heartfelt lyricist. Finally I came across this review from Jim and Greg over at Chicago Public Radio's famous Sound Opinions. They reviewed the album and both gave it a thumbs down, mentioning the same complaint with lack of continuity that I described. Though I don't agree with their assessment of the movie (I LOVED it) or their "trash it" ratings, I think they've got some valid complaints. Someone did drop the ball on making this record seamless. Judge for yourselves.

Sound Opinions - Juno Review (Stream Link: Must have internet to play) [ysi]

My favorite Kimya song unfortunately doesn't appear on this album. Check out "You Love Me" on itunes or Rhapsody. It's more accessible and less tiresome than some of her other songs. I love it.

New Billy B

Mr. Billy Bragg is back for his twelfth studio album, Mr. Love and Justice. Though the album has already made it's way to number 33 on the UK charts, it is yet to be released here in the US. We do have a sample of whats to come thanks to the single "I Keep the Faith" which is available for purchase on itunes, or was available free from the MPR podcast daily download last week. As an English musician and author, Billy is probably most famous for his work with the amazing Wilco on 1998's Mermaid Avenue and 2000's Mermaid Avenue V. 2.

But its the social and political conscientiousness of his lyrics that has always sucked me in; the man is fearless in tackling the big issues both on and off stage. In England he has been majorly involved in voter recruitment, political reform (Especially the House of Lords), as well as an ardent voice against facism, racism, sexism, homphobia, and bigotry. He contributed to the Rock Against Bush album with ska-punk band Less Than Jake, and has been a huge favorite here in Seattle at KEXP.

Billy Bragg - I Keep the Faith [ysi]

I haven't had a chance to rock the new album yet, but I love this song. If you haven't seen it yet, also check out the performance below. Live at Seattle's Triple Door, Bragg performs "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards". The song tackles the state of global political/social activism (or apathy) with an absolute stabbing truth. Plus, Billy is extremely charming and funny.



Note: Though he improvs some lyrics on stage, here are the original words:

One leap forward, two leaps back
Will politics get me the sack?
Here comes the future and you cant run from it
If you've got a blacklist I want to be on it
Its a mighty long way down rock n roll
From top of the pops to drawing the dole
If no one seems to understand
Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman
In a perfect world wed all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room

So join the struggle while you may
The revolution is just a t-shirt away
Waiting for the great leap forwards

For anyone who watches the speech at the end: "A patriot is someone who gives a shit about what happens in their country."

Peace Love and Political activism,

Lydia

Friday I'm in Shuffle

Friday is here already. Of course my two days off work go as fast as can be imagined. Tomorrow its back to the Man - and to the fun group of 50 kids who come into our store weekend nights and harass the crap out of the staff. I am so pumped!

The Clash - The Card Cheat [ysi]

Hieroglyphics - Pep Love [ysi]
Minnie Driver - Hungry Heart [ysi]
Clipse - We Got it For Cheap [ysi]
The Kinks - All Day and All of the Night
2Pac - Do 4 Love [ysi]
The Moldy Peaches - Greyhound Bus [ysi]
Nick Drake - Black Eyed Dog [ysi]
Live - Lightning Crashes
Mason Jennings - Bullet [ysi]

Also, the new Death Cab album art is here thanks to Stereogum. What do you think kiddies? Sort of reminds me of a seventies acid trip. And by reminded I mean imagined; I'm not that old.

Fighting Kelly Clarkson Fans is Fun

So I got into a verbal sparring yesterday with one freak who makes Kelly Clarkson stalkers look downright normal. The verbal battle, via the internet, was the result of one of one of my favorite music blogs choice to post 4 new Kelly demos for sampling purposes. There was an immediate backlash of sorts, with Kelly fans uniting to get the songs taken down. Administrators complied, despite the lack of a FORMAL request, in other words Kelly's record company or lawyers made no attempt to contact the blog about it. I did not download the songs. I didn't really want to. But some people were being complete tools and zealots, so I had to step up and protect the integrity of the music blog system.Here's a little sample of our convo.

Me: Seriously crazy Kelly fans, take it down a notch. What are you doing reading a music blog if you’re going on a whole tirade about the legality of music sharing? Shouldn’t you be living in a cave with your copy of My December instead of taking time to holier-than-thou us “crazies” who actually like to sample music before we buy it?
PS. The Hype Machine got its name for a reason. Because music blogs hype artists; as in, make them more buzzed about, popular, and eventually successful. PMA [The Blog Name] is the only reason I’m even thinking about Kelly Clarkson today. Tools.

Tool: LTK, your an ass… there are LEGAL WAYS to sample music, go to any store, they have lsitening stations, go to itunes or amazon, you can hear clips legally of a song.. if a one minute clip isn’t enough to know you like a song, you shouldn’t be listening to music at all. All these blogs due to sicrulate music illegally.. people get the music free, then don’t bother buying the album, because they already have the songs.

Me: Thanks for explaining itunes to me so well - I have been living in cave the last ten years so technology is pretty much a mystery. By the way expert, they’re 30 second clips and some of us who don’t consider Top 40 to be artistic genius need more than that to know we like a song. I may be an ass, but at least I’m not a hypocrite. Stop reading/supporting these music blogs you claim to hate. I DO buy tons of great music thanks to PMA and other blogs, but thanks for generalizing and saying none of us do. That would be like me saying all people who can’t spell circulate correctly suck at life.

Basically it ended badly. And I didn't even listen to Kelly's songs. The point I was trying to drive home was about the importance of music blogs in artist promotion. Without them, so many upcoming and unsigned artists would not receive the breaks they're looking for in the industry. Artists have acknowledged this fact; thousands SEND their music to writers asking to be posted about. Professional music blogs often offer free and legal downloads, and if they are for sample purposes offer a disclaimer so that any legal infringement may be corrected immediately. Contrary to the belief of this Clarkson fan, you can never find full albums on blogs, and many of us use these samples as jumping blocks to go out and buy what we love.

I know it's petty, but fighting with this tool was fun. I hope I made him cry. Just a little. And over "Behind These Hazel Eyes" playing in the background.

Cee-Lo and DMouse Have Me All in a Tizzy

New music addictions? Gnarls B is enough for me. The Odd Couple returned last Tuesday (I'm slacking okay) with the kind of dark, sadistic lyricism I live for (Go Cee-lo!) paired with the 60's neo-soul sounding beats of DJ Danger Mouse, coming up pure brilliance. Another amazing duo of the decades: the best of the revolutionary mod wave combined with all the greatness of indie self-deprecation.

"Who's Gonna Save My Soul" is all over the radio right now, which usually turns me off a single, but its just so gosh darn catchy its impossible to stay away from. But what's even better? Songs like "Whatever" that explain adolescence completely. Such simplistically honest lyrics both recognize the pain of high school and poke fun at it. More of the latter I'm sure. There's this realization most of us have in our twenties: Being a teenager felt like the shitiest time in life, but really we didn't have much to bitch about beyond shitty prom dates and bad hair days. And upon realizing that life can actually can get shitty when you have to do things like work, pay bills, support your deadbeat boyfriend, etc. we have to make fun of what moody little shits were in high school. We have a good laugh about our naive, douchebag selves. Even the track's title "Whatever" is one word we associate with the young degenerate; encapsulating in one statement how enthusiastically we felt about life.

I don’t have any friends at all
Cause I have nothing in common with ya’ll
So who’s gonna catch me if I fall
My backs always against the wall
I don’t have anything to say
I want everything to go my way
Shut up mom it is not OK
I’m alone almost every day

But it’s cool (it’s cool)
It could be better (could be better)
I don’t care (I don’t care)
Whatever (whatever)...

Went to my counselor bout how I feel
Everyone agrees I could use some help
I love my girl more than I love myself
She’s going steady with someone else
I don’t know what else to do
Said f**k me, well f**k you too
I know it sounds real sad but true
Being alone is nothing new

But it’s cool (it’s cool)
It could be better (could be better)
I don’t care (I don’t care) …huh
Whatever (whatever)

Gnarls Barkley - Whatever [ysi]

Gnarls Barkley - Who's Gonna Save My Soul? [ysi]

Peace, Love and Whatever (Teenage Angst)

Lydia

Ben Gibbard Teaches Us How to Take a Joke

I didn't even choose to post yesterday because of all the April Fool's madness. How could you take me seriously? Or me take myself seriously for that matter. It would not have happened, I guarantee you - lies are too much fun to tell.

Ben Gibbard of ____fill in blank____ knows what I'm talking about here: as demonstrated by his elaborate, and utterly hilarious April Fool's joke. (Reason #437 we should get married.) Ben posted this video on YouTube, proclaiming that he had formed yet another side project called Just Jazzin'. What can I say about this that isn't covered 10x more ridiculously in this "documentary" I don't know. Watch for yourself and find out.