With the World Cup finally at a close and Spain with a victory in-hand, I find it only fitting to draw your attention to one of my new favorite bands: Barcelona. Ok, maybe the mere fact that the name of the band coincides with a city in Spain isn’t enough to relate it to the World Cup, but I’m the one writing the post and I do what I want.
Barcelona is actually from Seattle, WA and has nothing to do with Spain. But don’t fret, this band is just as 1st rate as the Spanish World Cup team. Again, not related but trust me they are worth it. I first came across these guys after hearing the song “Come Back When You Can” in a video I was watching online. In the end, I was more concerned about the song than I was the video (sorry guy that made the video), and it brought me right to their debut big label release: Absolutes.
My personal favorites lean heavily towards their slower songs: “Get Up”, “Please Don’t Go” and “First Floor People.” These guys definitely have a knack for creating simple, emotionally-driven songs that you can’t help but listen to over and over again. Like “Baby Beluga” for a 3-year-old. Kids just can’t get enough Raffi. It’s like a well-known fact.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see a lot of tour dates out there for these guys, so if you fall in love with them (which you will) you’ll just have to wait a little while to see the real thing. It’s ok though because it’ll just build up the anticipation while you listen to Absolutes over and over again. I’ve listened to it almost 40 times in three days (actually about 3 times, but that’s pretty close to 40) and the anticipation is killing me (softly of course.)
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I always enjoy good compilation albums. It really says something when artists come together to create an album that really connects with a number of different fan bases. Sort of like a “Now That’s What I Call Music!” CD except without all of the, you know, suck. And sometimes, you get an album that surpasses the occasional “Various Artists” Christmas Album or the “We Are The World” compilation that rocked the ripe year of 1985. Maybe Dark Night of the Soul isn’t the earth-shattering compilation to overtake “We Are the World”, but it’s pretty damn good.
The album is written by Danger Mouse, of The Grey Album fame that mixed Jay-Z’s The Black Album with The Beatles’ The White Album. He also formed Gnarls Barkley with Cee-Lo producing both albums as well as producing other projects for the likes of Beck and Gorillaz. Dark Night of the Soul is also written by the band Sparklehorse.
The whole project is a compilation of different artists that lend their talents to the album including Iggy Pop, James Mercer of The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes and Nina Persson of The Cardigans. Of course there are more, but you’ll just have to check out the album for the whole scoop. Will there be someone else? Is your favorite artist on the album? Listen and find out! That’s what we call a cliff hanger.
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I’ve been pouring through these Indie Music Playlists looking for talented bands that we could feature on site, and I’ve started to notice something pretty disconcerting about the genre: most of it is really, really bad.
Indie artists have, for the most part, started indie bands because they don’t want to fit into the tidy formulas of regular pop and rock, and while there’s a certain level of credibility to such a mission statement, the end result often ends up overly-experimental and—let’s face it—kinda weird.
But once in a while there’s an indie band that not only manages a hot song, but several hot songs and even complete hot albums. They experiment, and they strive to do something different, yet they also don’t sound like trash-can banging modern performance art. Rogue Wave is one of the indie bands that does it right.
In fact, they do it so right that I hardly even consider them indie. The first two tracks on their new album, “Permalight,” are both energetic, interesting, and most importantly, identifiably musical. “Solitary Gun” sounds like something Zach Braff would pick out for his next screenplay, and “Good Morning” has a stronger drumbeat and techno edge that absolutely makes it radio-worthy.
The entire record is painted with songs as colorful as the gorgeous album cover, and while it definitely makes strong efforts to do the whole indie thing, it’s not at all offensive to those of us who aren’t exactly gung-ho about some of the goofier stuff in the genre. We’ll give Rogue Wave a full endorsement for fans of rock, alternative, pop, and electronica. It’s not kinda weird. Just good.
Check out “Good Morning” here:
Buy “Permalight” here:
I’ve got this mix I put together about five years ago which I creatively titled “Life Altering Songs,” comprised of completely random songs that just so happened to be on heavy rotation in my CD player (remember those?) when I was going through some sort of relevant rite of passage in my life.
For example, “On Bended Knee” by Boyz II Men is on the list because that’s the song I danced to with my first big crush at a junior high dance. “Blue on Black” by Kenny Wayne Shepherd burned all summer long in the months immediately following my high school graduation. And “I Just Wanna Be Loved” by AM Radio hit me as I began my student teaching experience and fell out of love with a college girlfriend.
There’s a lot of emotional reminiscence wrapped up in that song, folks, but it wouldn’t mean half as much if the song itself wasn’t absolutely perfect musically. It simultaneously reminds me of something from the 1960s and the 1990s, despite the fact that AM Radio’s album “Radioactive” was recorded in 2003. It rocks, but it’s under control. The hook hits with a melody that turned into earworms more times than I can count. It’s one of the few times in my life that I’ve been able to put a song on repeat and just let it run.
I seriously love the song.
The rest of the album is solid, too. It’s early millennium pop-rock, like something in between Hoobastank and the Juliana Theory, and every song on the record has legitimate toe-tapping potential. Highlighted by “Hush,” “This is the End of the World,” and “Becoming You,” the album is definitely worthy of some extended play on an iPod. Or CD player, if you do, in fact, remember those.
Trimmed down to two members and experimenting with a new musical style with 2009’s “Bigger Better Bolder Brighter,” but it’s “Radioactive” that holds such a special place in my heart and my memories. Maybe if my dog dies or something while I’m listening to the new record I’ll find a way to get it into regular rotation, but for now “I Just Wanna Be Loved” will remain my favorite AM Radio song.
BEAST, a project from Betty Bonifassi and Jean-Phi Goncalves, is one of the most refreshing and innovative music projects we have come across in long while. Mix together electronica, hip-hop, rock and jazz and you get BEAST. The duo jokingly coined their music “trip-rock” and the classifier has stuck. Really what we have here are two incredibly talented musicians with lengthy careers that came together in the spirit of creating something new. This natural creation is what makes the music so intense and exciting.
We had an opportunity to sit down with Betty Bonifassi and Jean-Phi Goncalves after a recent visit to the United States. We caught up with the pair after they had spent a long day of traveling in from Montreal and then sound checking for a show that night. After spending ten minutes with them we were hooked. It is clear that they are still getting used to the success and attention that their project has gained. Their single, “Mr. Hurricane”, was just recently nominated for a Grammy in the Best Short Music Video category along side of Coldplay, Black Eyed Peas and Depeche Mode. An upcoming SXSW performance along with a ton of touring is setting things up for much deserved global recognition.
We had a chance to watch BEAST perform live and it was an incredible experience. Bonifassi’s vocals burn with intensity. Goncalves’ instrumentation and production reminds us of a mad genius. At the end of the performance our hearts were racing and our eyes were as wide as saucers. Tank and I exchanged glances that simply said, “was that for real?”
KC’s Personal Picks: “Devil”, “Mr. Hurricane”, “Satan” and “Out of Control”
Check out our exclusive interview with BEAST
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