mixtape maestro (2.0)

Say what you will about Grey’s Anatomy not really being the “must-see” event it once was (we wouldn’t necessarily argue with you), but you got to admit, they still know how to alert viewers to great under-the-radar pop finds. “Die Young”, from (previously MM-approved) Swedish indie duo The Sweet Serenades, is one of the prime-time soap’s latest compelling scene-soundtrackers.

Effectively pairing the rustic tenor of Serenades’ singer/ rhythmic guitarist Martin Nordvall with the sighing, featherweight coo of Club 8 vocalist Karolina Komstedt atop a melancholy recipe of wistful guitar, synth squiggles, cracking drums and rumbling bongos, midtempo ballad “Die Young” hones in on the all-too-familiar awkward scenario of a couple waking up from a one night stand with differing reactions.

“It’s a lie, we knew it all along”, emotes Nordvall on the hook, yet despite being fully aware of the “rules”, he’s still hesitant to budge from bed, wanting to milk every single second out of his post-lay state of bliss (“Oh I don’t wanna leave/ I just wanna lay here and watch you breathe”). Too bad Komstedt doesn’t share that same sense of euphoria, all she wants is for him to quickly depart before he falls for her any deeper: “I’m not looking for love/ I told you that I just wanna dance,” she pointedly reminds him, her words bathed in a weighted remorse.

Peep the MP3/ video below, followed by a dark n’ dubby “Die Young” remix put together by the Artymove gang.

From Sweet Serenades’ latest, Balcony Cigarettes.

DL: “Die Young” (alt)

DL: “Die Young (Artymove Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized artymove, club 8, duet, grey's anatomy, indie pop, karolina komstedt, sweden, the sweet serenades

Newbie Louisville, Kentucky four-piece The Pass construct a fierce indie dance-rock boogie that’s sure to rank amongst favorites come year-end music list-making time with “Colors”, the title track to the their newly released introductory EP.

The track’s main riff, a punchy, cock-sure cyclone of ringing guitar funkiness, houses an instantaneous spark, the kind that haphazardly seeps into your brain in the A.M. and leaves you floating through air the rest of the day, the echoing of it’s contagious rhythm in your head all that’s needed to keep your personal mood on a life-loving, sunny tip.

Are their other elements to “Colors” were mentioning? Of course: it carries cool vocals and a solid hook that’s just begging to be sung along to while driving down the highway in the middle of the summer with your friends; for us, however, it’s all about that central strut of a groove.

Peep it (and fall in love) below.

DL: “Colors” (alt)

Uncategorized dance-rock, indie pop, indie rock, kentucky, the pass

After dwelling in the dark and moody on the 80’s sci-fi-meets-’70’s soul curiosity “Stylo”, cartoon collective Gorillaz offer a much-welcomed return trip to the lighthearted pop end of their stylistic spectrum for newest Plastic Beach tease “Superfast Jellyfish”.

Goofily sculpted as a three minute long advert of a microwavable breakfast dish that we’re sure is meant to be a metaphor for something deep (sans helpful lyric sheet, we won’t even try to figure out what it’s really going on about), “Jellyfish” is definitely a strange lil’ concoction; at the same time, it’s also one that won’t easily be escaping your brain anytime soon, thanks to convivial cameos from De La Soul and Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys and an irresistible schoolyard funk groove that’s just begging for a third guest spot turn from that other great animated band, Fat Albert & The Junkyard Gang.

Snatch up a radio rip of the track (shouts) below; pre-order Plastic Beach here for the single CD version or here, for the CD/ DVD combo.

DL: “Superfast Jellyfish (Radio Rip)” (alt)

Uncategorized alt-hip hop, de la soul, gorillaz, gruff rhys, indie pop, plastic beach, super furry animals, UK

Previously heralded for sunny, handclap-laden singles that worked a Motown-influenced, ’60’s girl group pop bop angle with bliss-inducing results (“Add Your Light To Mine, Baby”, “Woah Billy”, “White Russian Doll”), Lucky Soul venture a bit darker sonically on new track “A Coming of Age”, the title cut from the British six-piece’s upcoming second set featuring lead singer Ali Howard’s coquettish coos housed within a dramatic display of waltz swing patterns and Bond-esque guitar figures.

The reason for all this grandiose hullabaloo? Some man done done Ali wrong, shattering her young heart and leaving her “cling(ing) to the floor”, fingering the still warm footprints that trace his pathway out of her life. “I thought a friend meant someone to depend on/ Call it a coming of age…come too late,” she sings, the brief pause before those last three words bulging with all kinds of unstated ache and confusion.

Awww. Makes you wanna pull her into a tight embrace and let her know that everything’s gonna be alright.

Pick it up below or as a free download from their website, then proceed to lift your spirits back up with a viewing of their peppy “White Russian Doll” clip.

A Coming of Age, the album, arrives April 19th through Ruffa Lane Records.

DL: “A Coming of Age” (alt)

Uncategorized 60's, girl group, indie pop, lucky soul, retro, UK

On “Excuses”, the first single lifted from The Morning Benders‘ sophomore album Big Echo, the Cali indie-pop band (previously given love here for their intimate re-imagining of The Cardigans’ “Lovefool”) offer a gorgeously executed riff off of Phil Spector’s oft-referenced “Wall of Sound” studio trickery to support an engrossing play-by-play of young “soulmates” bathed in the euphoric bliss of making love for the first time.

The track, co-produced by lead singer Christopher Chu and Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, will initially spellbind you with it’s faux-vinyl haze and a dreamy doo-wop sway divinely seasoned with acoustic guitar strum flickers, rumbling bass drums, shuffling percussion, twinkling piano notes, sorrowful strings and “dah-dah-dum” background vocals seemingly birthed from angels perched atop the clouds above.

But being blessed with such ornate grandeur isn’t “Excuses” only satisfying bid at timeless pop-crafting; it’s lyrics, sweetly brought to life via Chu’s languid croon, prove just as endlessly endearing in their impressive stab at classic romance novel text, whether describing key moments of passion (“When you try to taste me/ And I take my tongue to the Southern tip of your body…”) or dishing out swoon-worthy lines like “I put no one else above us/ We’ll still be best friends when all turns to dust”.

Pick up the studio-version MP3 below, followed by an equally magnificent live take lensed by Yours Truly.

Pre-order Big Echo, due March 9th, here.

DL: “Excuses (Album Version)” (alt)

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders “Excuses” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Uncategorized 60's, california, indie pop, phil spector, retro, the morning benders

Tucked away in the mid-section of their hyped-to-the-heavens second offering Odd Blood, the admirably near-uncategorizable Brooklyn indie-rockers Yeasayer go even odd-er (if such a thing is even possible) by getting all early-00’s teen-pop on our asses with the computerized white boy funk workout of “Love Me Girl”.

Far different than anything they’ve ever put to tape, at it’s core, “Love Me Girl” teeters on being an awkward mess, it’s struggle at finding a comfortable common ground between New Romantic swooning and Timberlake-ian herky-jerk R&B glitch never quite gelling as well as the band seems to think it does.

So why do we stamp it as being an album standout, anyway? Partly because we kinda-sorta dig the nervous tension in the song’s lyrics (it follows one man on the verge of an emotional breakdown as his current relationship fizzles out before his eyes); but mostly because of it’s begging-to-be-looped two minute long intro, a dramatic synth-based build-up excitingly peppered with animal cackles and haunting vocoder tags that hints of the best rave ever bursting alive around you at any moment.

Take a listen to the amazingly launched cut below, followed by a bonus offering of The Very Best’s merry overdub of Odd Blood’s lead single “Ambling Alp” (shouts).

“Love Me Girl”:

BONUS DL: Yeasayer “Ambling Alp (The Very Best ‘Mulomo’ Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized brooklyn, indie pop, indie rock, the very best, yeasayer

On Still Standing At Your Back Door, the debut full-length from nineteen-year-old Swedish twins Taxi Taxi!, sisters Miriam and Johanna Berhan go far out of their way to present themselves as old souls.

Yeah, their songwriting relies heavily on teenybopper-isms like puppy love and first heartaches, and you won’t ever mistake their squeaky harmonies as originating from some older and wiser female duo, but that’s the extent of any connection that could be made to America’s same-aged, Disney-backed tween-pop brigade. Instead of cheapened R&B-lite or pop-rock aural assaults, the Berhan sibs would rather surround their voices in beautifully earthen, acousti-folk settings. Their “girl-loves-boy” narratives? Over-dramatized poetics (most penned around the age of fifteen) about romantic addictions to boys with “troubled souls” (“Ripest Fruit”) and how snuggling close with the one you love brings about fantasies of marriage and kids (“More Childish Than In A Long Time”).

This strain for a beyond-our-years maturity in both musical and lyrical forms helps establish Still Standing as an ideal winter-time listen for listeners of all different ages, but interestingly enough, it’s true standout moment arises when Taxi Taxi! act more their age, as they do on the merry “Old Big Trees”, a summer camp sing-along-structured ditty featuring tender oom-pah strummings and the girls’ cutesy doe-eyed-meets-goth attempt at convincing some boy of the great couple they could make.

“Bachelor, oh bachelor,” they coo in girlish unison, “Maybe my skeleton would look quite beautiful beside yours”. All together now: Awww…

DL: “Old Big Trees” (alt)

Uncategorized acoustic, indie folk, indie pop, sweden, taxi taxi

Shake away all lingering traces of doubt and save those “sophomore jinx” giggles for another band’s disastrous second go’ round. Why? Vampire Weekend’s Contra, the much-anticipated follow-up to the 2008 self-titled debut that rocked many a bloggers’ year-end round-up, has finally made it’s Web premiere (it’s currently streaming on the band’s MySpace) and…it’s…awesome.

On the surface, what the boys accomplish here isn’t too deep: they’ve simply taken the charming themes of the first album (the world-pop-focused melodic merriment, the random preppie life gibberish) and polished and expanded on them…a typical sophomore LP course of action. But in the playful and ever-awe-inspiring musical universe of VW, even the tiniest doses of ambition (be it more of a lenience on electronic-based musical textures, surprisingly moving first stabs in true balladry, or the inclusion of Auto-Tune[!?!]) go a long way.

Of the ten cuts (all single-worthy) being served, and excluding previously released delights “Horchata” and “Cousins”, for us, Contra definitely hits home-runs when it comes to “Run” and “Diplomat’s Son”.

On the former, singer Ezra Koenig is suddenly hit with the idea of going off on a romantic getaway for two, somewhere far away from “all the stars in bars” and all the gray-toned humdrum of 9-to-5 living, where he and his boo can enjoy the simple bliss of different surroundings and eachother’s conversation.

We never really learn if the duo actually act on this idea, but all the excitement built around him just putting the notion out there is satisfying enough, from the heartwarming way Ezra describes her eyes lighting up with surprise at his out-of-nowhere proposal, to the rumbling tribal-like percussion, sudden erupting bursts of horn-fare and the song-ending detour into new wave-inspired glee that all seem to illustrate his suggestion being the greatest plan ever.

The plotline to the six-minute long, hodgepodge masterpiece “Diplomat’s Son” also follows some sort of life-altering “a-ha!!” moment (“It’s not right/ But it’s now or never/ And if I wait/ Could I ever forgive myself?”) interspersed with beautifully detailed lyrical imagery (“The sight of dishes sittin’ in the bathtub”; “The moon glow(ing) yellow in the riptide”) and a tinge of nostalgia (“It was ‘81″), but that barely registers with importance when you’re being distracted by all the glorious going-ons happening in the backing arrangement.

A mechanized dancehall strut decorated with sampled M.I.A. chants, dreamy doo-wop background vox, frilly strings, Afro-pop bop and piano notes that can’t figure out if they want to portray a doo-wop or ragtime style, the production behind “Son” is a peculiar monster indeed; it’s also the best thing VW has ever put to tape…and that’s saying a lot for a band whose two full length albums so far released both feel like greatest hit comps.

Hear Contra, in it’s entirety here, but don’t forget to pick it up when it officially drops January 11th.

“Cousins (David Letterman 1/5/10 Performance)”:

BONUS DL: “Cousins (Toy-Selectah Mex-More Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized afro-pop, contra, dancehall, indie pop, live performance, remix, vampire weekend

Opening with striking staccato vocal snippets before being sent afloat with screaming guitar and a thick bottom-end chug, then brought down to Earth with a buzzing bassline and punchy electric fretwork, the amazing first minute of “I Can Talk”, the newest single from Irish three-piece Two Door Cinema Club, carries this exciting air of a future music sensation being born in real-time.

Of course, the Kitsune-backed band’s instantaneous musical appeal will be nothing new to those who’ve been obsessively following TDCC’s quiet rise up to buzzworthiness over the past year via live gigs, remixes and tracks like the sunny “Something Good Can Work Out” and the equally catchy (and quite sweet) “Undercover Martyn”, but it’s the fizzy contagiousness of “I Can Talk” (with special note to Alex Trimble’s boy-ish delivery and a great breakdown section featuring a playful guitar exchange between all three members) that truly seals the deal of big things being on the horizon for the electro indie-pop crew.

Get the I Can Talk Remix EP here; The band’s debut album is set for a February 2010 release.

DL: “I Can Talk” (alt)

Bonus DL: Two Door Cinema Club “Do You Want It All?” (alt)

Uncategorized electro-pop, indie pop, ireland, two door cinema club

The go-to gal when it’s odes of heartbreak and loneliness dressed in twinkly, melancholic arrangements you crave to help get you through a gray-skied afternoon, Swedish songbird El Perro del Mar keeps chugging out that depressing bewitch-craft on “Change of Heart”, the first single off her latest collection, the recently-released-in-the-States EP Love Is Not Pop.

A bit musically denser than the twee orchestral seasonings that framed her previous works (yet still somehow still able to grasp her signature stamp of weightlessness), “Change” rides along a ’70’s rock-inspired soundbed of thickened bass grooves and echo-y guitar curlicues that drift in and out of a dream-like haze as Mar’s forlorn chirp mourns yet another dead-end romance.

It’s gorgeously transfixing stuff, an aesthetic brilliantly matched in it’s accompanying clip featuring the mesmerizing visuals of two golden-hued bodybuilders doing some amazingly slo-mo’ed performance art choreography.

El Perro Del Mar “Change Of Heart” from The Control Group on Vimeo.

Uncategorized 70's, el perro del mar, indie pop, singer-songwriter, sweden