And here's a band I had no idea existed when I woke up this morning...
But I got hipped to the live stream of the Primavera Sound festival from Spain and when I flipped it on, these guys were absolutely keeeeeeeling eeeeeeet. They're called Delorean, they are also from Spain and they are about as close to Animal Collective as I can tolerate. I know that doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement, but I'm giving them some shine because did I mention they were keeeeeeeling eeeeeeet live?
That webcast continues tomorrow and Saturday, with some great acts in the lineup (T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou!). Prepare to get nothing done the next couple days...
Seems to me like the last few posts have been pretty similar in vibe, so let's change it up a bit, shall we?
So here's what I know about Autour De Lucie... they're a French guitar Pop band from the '90s, I probably first heard them on Morning Becomes Eclectic, I probably bought this for 99 cents at a parking lot sale and I probably haven't listened to this record in 10 years. That's what I know. Oh, and the song title translates as "What Have We Done?" Ecoutez...
So I didn't quite finish. I coulda told you there was a good chance of that happening. Sound the fail horn!
I mean, I could have done like last year and spent an entire week putting together a mega-mega Sunday post only to have it DMCA'd twelve hours later... but that almost resulted in me murdering several innocent woodland creatures last year, what will all the blind rage it stirred up, so it's probably just as well. But we had a good time, eh? Discovered some new favorites, no? Indeed. So back to the world of randomness we return. An old Tonegents fave popped up first...
With the recent tanking of Madonna's latest album (a well-deserved tanking, I should ad, as it was truly, disappointingly horrid), we need the return of a real diva 'round here. So the question is... what the hell has Roisin Murphy been up to? Get off your ass and get crackin', girl... the world of Pop needs you!
Wow. Hard to get motivated to blog when you're on vacation. Had this whole lovely, profanity-laced rant about the whole Madonna/Deadmau5 thing mostly written (short version: Deadmau5 is a douche. Shocker.) but that shit's old news now. Oh well... back to the Coachella...
I was going to skip Wild Beasts and I'm sure I was right about that, but it's been so long since I started this post that I can't even remember why. HA!
I haven't skipped any bands in, like, two posts! Let's put an end to that with a short parade of British mediocrity...
First off, we have Gardens & Villa, who are a British outfit that's kinda jangly and lo-fi and boring...
Then we have Spector, another British group that kind of sounds like an updated Spandau Ballet, but aren't really as good as that comparison might indicate. Don't front on Spandau Ballet, yo...
Next, to switch things up, we have a British act... with a Swedish guy in it! Unfortunately, Fanfarlo are also painfully '80s-sounding. But I do love one song of theirs, and have posted that on the Facebook page. And let me just say, if you're not all "liked" up on that, you are missing some good shit lately, unless hours of free music isn't your thing...
So, to sum up... three strikes and the Brits are out, making way for some Frenchies... which probably really grinds their gears...
What I think: I think Sunday's lineup is kicking ass so far in the "bands I'd never heard of" department. I guess Coachella isn't complete shit yet. Anyhoo these guys make quite a delightful racket (see what I did there?) live as well...
Today we will land on a band I was supposed to see a couple of months ago... but I missed it. How's THAT for a story?
I'm told British band WU LYF's name stands for "World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation" which makes absolutely zero sense, but it's got "Lucifer" in it so they MUST be cool, right? The Devil is so RAWK. But nah. They actually manage to be shouty & shoegazy at the same time, which is approximately as awful as it sounds...
This Death Grips guy scares the fuck outta me, dude. I'm gonna have nightmares where's he's outside my window with an axe and a clown's head, I shit you not...
And both The Black Angels and Dawes are middling Indie Rock bands, the former being slightly more interesting and stoner-y and the latter being the very definition of "meh". Which means your Thursday party is...
Who he is: A full band on stage but on record it's just 21-year-old Alan Palombo up there, a dude who already had success with two other projects (Ghosthustler, Vega) before he even started this one which is already on record #2 and playing Coachella... so basically he's the kind of overachiever you just wanna punch in the face...
What he sounds like: Because I loved the way a YouTube commenter described the band Other Lives in my last post, I'll paraphrase him and say it's like Com Truise fucked the Jesus & Mary Chain. Some call it Chillwave, which is definitely one of the stupidest new made-up genre names in a while...
What I think: I like it 'cuz under all the weirdness it's pretty darn catchy. Also I hear they amp it up live and rock the party out. To demonstrate this, here's a sit-down, in-studio performance...
By the way, if you didn't know about KEXP before... find out. In a while, cocodriles...
So that whole Internet blackout thing was pretty successful yesterday, sounds like. I'm pretty happy about that... 'cuz I don't want my shit shut down, yo! I'M PROVIDING A PUBLIC SERVICE HERE, DAMMIT! Making the world a better place and shit. You're welcome, humanity. Now back to the show, and I don't even have to skip anyone today...
Who she is: A successful Mexican singer/songwriter (I'd call Grammy nominations successful, no matter what you think of them... and I don't think much. But it certainly infers a modicum of success, no?) who has moved to L.A. and decided to become an English language Pop star.
What she sounds like: Better than a hell of a lot of the Pop I'm hearing these days, and I'm quite familiar with the Billboard charts due to my Chelsea Lately warm-up DJ gig, wherein I dutifully peddle Chart Pop dross to the masses. There's not a ton of Latin influence in the sound, but then when you see that her main collaborator on this record is the dude from The Bird & The Bee (who know their way around a Pop hook quite well indeed), I guess that's not as surprising. The obviously girl's going for the big crossover score...
What I think: This is totally working for me. I may be Mr. Underground & Obscure most of the time but I can't deny a great Pop hook and this gal's got plenty of 'em. Her voice may be a little rough around the edges, but I can deal with it. Besides, she even rocks her own laptop. I don't see any of those other Pop bitches doin' that. YOUR MOVE, BEYONCE! Actually I bring Beyonce up for a reason, because according to this article, Ximena was actually smart enough to tell Diplo (the man largley responsible for a Beyonce's just absolutely monumentally shitty latest album from what I understand) to go fuck himself. This girl's goin' places, I tells ya...
You can also check out some Ximena bonus content at the Tonegents Facebook page. I'll be posting a lot of extra bits there throught this thing. Word...
One of the problems with this whole Blog-achella thing that I don't normally run up against so much in my regular posts is the DMCA police. You get up into the bands in big print, the bands with major labels... and sometimes your posts will get taken down because, as we all know, every dollar the record companies think they're losing when a little bitty blog like mine posts one of their songs is one less dollar they can steal from the artists themselves. Just look at the job these assholes did on the just the posts here on the first page of the blog. Frustrating, to say the least. But hopefully more bands will be able to go the Radiohead/NIN route and tell the major labels to fuck off altogether. Fingers crossed. BUT NEVERTHELESS WE TRUDGE ON!
First trudging directly upon the head of Steve Angello, who makes the kind of music that people who hate House music use to hate House music with, if you get my drift. Pure shite... unlike...
Who they are: Mick Jones of The Clash and the original lineup reunited... something I don't believe has happened since the very first album put out under the name...
What they sound like: Now it may sound a little quaint, but at the time it was a relatively groundbreaking combination of Rock, Hip-Hop, Funk and Dub. Does it still hold up? Sure... why not?
What I think: Even if it's not great, it's gonna be better than the last few bands on the bill. Bonus points if they dust off these outfits...
Now about the rest of the bill... Aussies Empire Of The Sun seem to sound like a way less good version of Monarchy - at least from what I just heard. Never heard these guys before so I have no idea why they're so high on the bill. Oh, maybe it's because the top of this bill sucks.
Seriously, Bright Eyes, Mumford & Sons, Animal Collective and Arcade Fire? Are you fucking kidding me? Does anyone who doesn't live in Silverlake really give a shit? These four would represent a very good Mount Rushmore Of Shit Indie. In order, you have the giant pussy, the fringe genre band that Pitchfork Nation for some reason decided was cool, the worst possible mutation of Electronica and the Most Pretentious Band In The World. Hate 'em. Sorry...
And that's your Saturday. With just over a week left until the show, whatever shall I do about Sunday?
Who they are: A band of Swedes. Now, usually I find the whole "obscure our faces in the promo shot" thing to be kinda douche-y and played out... but as you will soon see, these guys get a pass because it turns out they're not douche-y, just kinda ugly...
What they sound like: Every now and then, some little wimpy, jangly, sensitive girly-man Pop band randomly strikes my fancy for unknown reasons... ever since the days of The Trash Can Sinatras and The Ocean Blue. (Anyone? No? Well Google that shit then.) These guys are the latest such band...
How fun was that, eh? It was probably a hell of a lot more fun than sitting through Brandon Flowers' set. It's too bad, though. I mean, The Killers first album was really quite good but man did it go downhill fast... and speaking of going downhill after great first albums (which sounds like a pretty harsh way to introduce an act I'm recommending, but that's how I roll) howzabout...
Who she is: Oh, I'm sorry, its MS. Lauryn Hill. Of course, it may be inaccurate to say she's gone downhill. More like she hasn't done ANYTHING since releasing The Miseducation Of... and no, that MTV Unplugged shit doesn't count...
What she sounds like: She sounds exactly like she did 12 years (you read that right, 12 FREAKIN' YEARS) ago when Miseducation... came out because she's done nothing since... fortunately, that was one of the best records of the entire decade of the '90s (and perhaps the best female Hip-Hop record, oh, ever), so it ain't like it's a bad thing...
(Ha! Did I call it or what? Took all of 3 days for the DMCAing.)
What I think: I think you gotta go see her. It's been such a long time since you have the chance. Besides, it looks like Ms. Hill is quite up to the task despite the rust...
And then OH SHIT DOUBLE POST! WHAMMO!
Which means we then get to skip DJ Sasha of Sasha & Digweed fame, because remember... once it hits about 10 pm in the Sahara Tent the air is more than 80% Man Sweat, a level that can cause several unpleasant side effects... besides, he's not a chick with a superfluous Y in his name, now is he? But ya know who is?
Who she is: The Pop star that's not really all that different from the Britneys and Riahannas of the world (musically) when you really get down to it... except that she's from Sweden and that gives her +3 coolness...
What she sounds like: Chart Pop with +3 coolness. Duh. But of course I'll give you something way leftfield for her...
(Seriously, eat a bag of dicks, major labels...)
What I think: ... and then finish it up with her doing a Bjork cover, offering exactly zero proof that what I just said was anywhere near relevant. It's called WRITING, people...
And there you have it. Lots of superfluous Y's and good music. And some boobies. Just because...
You know, I've been doing the Blog-achella for a few years now... and I can't remember ever finding so many bands I'd never heard of that I've dug so soon into it. Does this mean that this year's undercard is simply better than ever or that I'm simply more out of touch with cool music than ever? Discuss...
Who they are: A mysterious duo, allegedly originally from Australia, but it's more fun to say "FROM PARTS UNKOWN!" MUAH!
What they sound like: Just some of the catchiest Synth Pop I've heard in forever. And gloriously lacking in obvious '80s signifiers, which scores major bonus points. Shit is just good, yo...
What I think: I'm down like a clown, Charle Brown. And in tune with being all mysterious and shit, they played their first ever concert at Cape Canaveral and beamed the shit into space, supposedly becoming the first band to do so. Um, ok...
But despite all the wackiness, are they friggin' good or what? I can't even be as snarky as usual. Run, do not walk...
Hey, back again! Now, I could spend quite a bit of time ranting about the Grammys, I suppose... but honestly, what's the point? I can't stand Arcade Fire the same amount I can't stand the people they were up against, so I got nothing on that one. Love Esperanza Spalding but she's hardly new, so even though they got that right, they still kinda fucked it up. Really, the only thing that raised my ire was Cee-Lo's "Fuck You", the most genius Pop tune of the entire year (and if you disagree with that, I will fight you), getting beat out in not one but BOTH of the big categories by this load of WTF? And don't get me started about Karaoke Madonna In a Fucking Egg... and look at that, I ranted on about The Grammys anyway. So pointless. Sigh...
Let's rant about Coachella for a bit then... with our first long list of lameness...
First we got Sander Kleinenberg, a House DJ playing all the big room bollocks. Full disclosure: I once went to a Sander Kleinenberg show and had fun. But I recommend staying out of the Sahara Tent for anything but the really essential live acts later in the night unless REALLY you like wearing other dudes' dude-sweat...
Berkeley-via-Brooklyn Indie rockers The Morning Benders are the closest of this group to getting love from me, but their undeniably interesting sonics are let down by some vocals that I'm not quite feelin'. I'll post a vid over at the Facebook page, so go over there, join in the fun and check it out. Bonus content daily! /endplug
The Drums are an awful waste of a good band name...
Hey, can we just stop it with the whole retro-80s shit, please? Especially when it's as bad as Cold Cave. Yikes...
Titus Andronicus have been getting a lot of buzz lately, but their Punk is nothing you haven't heard before a million times. They're a-"meh"-zing...
I made it a point to miss Yacht when they opened for Chromeo & The Chemical Brothers at the Hollywood Bowl this summer, and I suggest you follow that strategy for this show as well...
And hey, remember when Klaxons were a sure shot to become the next Biggest Band In The World? Yeah, neither do the bloggers who said so... which brings us to another unexpected treat...
Who they are: A supergroup... of Minneapolis bands I've never heard of/don't care about. Bon Iver, Megafaun, The Rosebuds, Solid Gold, Doomtree... huh? Oh, and there is rapper P.O.S., who we like... but yeah, who are these guys?
What they sound like: Slow, trippy and a little bit funky, with a love for '80s Soft Rock which somehow doesn't ruin the whole thing. And every song on the record clocks in at 69 bpm... how cheeky! It's kinda hard to describe, but it's really quite good. Just check it out...
What I think: I think they've overcome their horrible choice of band name quite nicely. Plus I hear they do some fun covers in concert, like Sade and the Alan Parsons Project, CAN I GET A WHAT WHAT?!? But today's live clip is of the exact same song you just heard, because it's the only thing on YouTube with decent sound. Deal with it...
And that's that. Made it through the whole post without a gay gang joke. I'm impressed with myself...
Look! I made it back! Twice the posts of last week! Slow down, Mr. Prolific! Anyhoo, we'll start the day with a few acts, none of which are awful but none of which excite me. We have a word around here for that, and that word is "meh"...
First are L.A. rap crew OFWGKTA, which stands for Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, which is pretty fucking stupid. That's probably why most people just call 'em Odd Future. The problem I have with them, besides the name, is twofold. For one, it's the music itself is a little slow and sludgy from what I listened to... and for two, there's a lot of dudes, which generally in the live arena means a lot of dudes shouting at the same time. I hate that...
Then comes Excision, which is some less than amazing Dubstep. One of those acts where the emphasis seems to be on "OOOOH, LOOGIT THE PATCHES I MADE! THIS ONE'S MORE CRAZIER THAN THE LAST! WOBBLEWOBBLE! I'M THE HAMBURGLER!" and then applies the same exact half-time beat and (simple-ass) song structure to each tune. Not a standout of the genre and since we already have heard some much better Dubstep, quite unnecessary...
And Moving Units are an Indie Rock band that are pretty good at sounding like they're trying to sound like The Cure...
Who she is: An L.A. gal whose dad is one of the dudes in Blue Man Group. Luckily she did not inherit his skin color or lack of ears...
What she sounds like: I think Imogen Heap would be a fair comparison... or at least a good place to start. A little bit odder version of Imogen, perhaps, and without the amazing one-woman-band skillz...
What I think: Can't hate on that. Give me a cute girl with a nice voice and some bleepy electronics and generally I'm in... but you knew that. Live, as I said, she is not a one woman show like my girl Imogen. But her band are sufficiently geeky with the high tech. Nerd out on this...
See you tomorrow. No, really... three this week, bitches. Just you watch...
Greetings and Happy New Year, except for the assorted Jews and Chinese and other folks for whom it's not yet the new year and it's also like the year 6843 or something. Whatever. I'm going to try to start things off in 6843 2011 by doing something I've never done before, the yearly review. Not quite a Top Ten list, because I'm not presumptuous enough to believe that I know or have even heard the 10, 20, 100, whatever number of best songs made by humans (and Die Antwoord) in the last year... more like a 10 that were top, if you get my drift. Except that there are 20. But in 10 parts. The fuck? Exactly. So strap in for Tone's Ten Top Of Ten!
Part 1: Indie Pop Perfection
Aside from my upcoming and completely unsurprising choice for Single of the Year, Pop Music in 2010 for me was dominated by two songs that I guess you would file under Indie Pop. Honestly, what people call Indie Pop should be just called Pop and the Chart Pop should just be called Bollocks. Because as I've mentioned before, I've become unfortunately reaquainted with Chart Pop this year and that stuff is, wait for it... bollocks... for the most part. But we'll get to that in a few posts. Now what the hell were we talking about?
Oh, right...
The year was a tale of two tunes, with the first half being ruled by a tune from a band from Northern Ireland that was remixed by some Brazilians and released on a French label. How's that for some Benetton ad shit? Here's Two Door Cinema Club and The Twelves with a song that blew me away at first listen and hasn't stopped blowing me since. Away that is...
How 'bout that Benetton joke for a dated reference? Does Benetton even exist any more?
But just when "Something Good..." looked like it would dominate the entire year, The Ting Tings dropped a single from their (still) forthcoming second album, and I was all like, "Two Door what?"
After delivering "That's Not My Name" on record one and now this beaut on record two, I gotta think maybe these guys stick around for a while. Or the rest of the new record could suck balls. We'll find out soon enough.
And thus ends part one of Tone's Ten Top Of Ten. Get it now? Well, maybe after a couple more...
Here's an album from earlier this year that you may not have heard of, which is pretty fucking odd, considering...
I mean, you would think that a collaboration album between two musical legends like David Byrne and Fatboy Slim that features literally every single awesome female singer in music today (seriously, check it out) would have made a bit more noise (bad pun sorta intended but not really) than Here Lies Love did... but maybe the fact that it's a 22-song cycle about the life of Imelda Marcos scared off your average Pop fan. But it shouldn't have, because this is a really good, really catchy record. Maybe not what you would have expected, but don't let the ghosts of 3000 pairs of shoes scare you...
This one also comes with a 120-page book (VERY Pop, no?) that lays out the story of the album for you because who doesn't like some LEARNIN' with their tunes? Eh? Eh?
Finally got some time to post this week, so suck on this...
Here's some painfully French orchestral pop from Alpha. I describe it as such because really no one other than the Frenchies still make this kind of of overwraught, '70s Soft Rock-style shenanigans. Actually, I'm not sure these guys even still make 'em. This record's kinda old and the last thing Alpha did was a seriously badass collabo with Horace Andy that, as you can guess, sounds LESS THAN NOTHING like this. But indeed, after Air hit big, there were a lot of such shenanigans coming out of France. And if you're in the right mood, it goes down nice and easy... sort of like Paris Hilton...
Because if I'm only going to be able to fit in a couple of posts a week, the least I can do is keep it super-timely and hip...
Or not. At least it's proof that I really do pick the songs on here at random. So... The Wolfgang Press, eh? What exactly is that name supposed to mean? Is it a person? A thing? I don't get it. EXPLAIN YOURSELVES, SEMI-OBSCURE LATE '80S/EARLY '90S ALTERNATIVE POP ARTIST! Anyhoo, I'll bet anything I first heard of these guys on 120 Minutes. Hey, I got a joke for you...
Tone is so old...
How old is he?
Tone is so old that he can actually remember a time when watching MTV could actually expand your musical knowledge and not just give you brain herpes.
A knee-slapper, that one. But seriously, 120 Minutes and Yo! MTV Raps made me the music freak I am today... and then the rest of the day they played Winger and Color Me Badd, but still...
So yeah, welcome to post 900 here that the Tonegents Musical Corner and Discount Tire Mart. And this post is a day late because I needed yesterday to recover from the most amazing musical weekend I've had in quite some time. You definitely want to have been me from last Friday to Sunday...
It all started Friday night when the beautiful Mrs. Tonegent and I got the invite to go to a very small (there were maybe 60 peeps there) private party that took place at an office in a little office park in Marina Del Rey... a party that was being DJ'ed by PHIL FREAKIN' HARTNOLL OF ORBITAL!. And yes, that's the only picture I got, even though I actually talked with him for like 20 minutes... because I am a moron. But Phil and his wife were absolutely nice as hell and it was a pretty big thrill to meet him. He took my gushing like a pro, but he had tossed back a few and was feeling the love in general, so there's that. Also, I must mention that he was rocking a moustache that made him look like an old gay biker. A pervy one. No matter, he played a killer set off Ableton Live with some obscure Orbital remixes because OF COURSE HE DID! But yeah, I met Phil Hartnoll and it was cool...
After a pretty much wasted Saturday, Sunday brought what I originally thought was going to be the highlight of the weekend (sorry, but meeting Orbital trumps just about everything) as we rolled to the Hollywood Bowl. First up, "the only successful Arab/Jewish partnership since the dawn of human culture", Chromeo...
If you hate Chromeo, you hate fun... there's really no two ways about it. They played a super-tight little opening set and sounded great (although with opening act sound, if you know what I mean). Personally though, having seen them in both this setting and the intimate club setting... they're better suited a smaller, sweatier venue. It's just more their vibe. But again, they were excellent. The new record's coming out in a couple of weeks, but I haven't been able to get my grubby little paws on it yet so here's one from their first, one they played Sunday...
And holy shit. Just holy shit. They destroyed the place. Left it in ruins. There is no question the Brothers still got it. First your tune (the bonus track from the new record Further) and then the evidence...
Now, The Chemical Brothers are made for this type of setting. They played an absolutely epic set that started out intense and did not fucking let up for one second. They put forth a huger, fuller sound than I have ever heard in the Bowl, with huge widescreen graphics (holy shit with the dancing light robot in the encore) of the kind we've come to expect. Sorry for the lack of eloquence but that's what happens when your brain is turned into a delicious frothy mush. Brothers done worked that shit out. Here's your taste...
Imagine that for an hour and a half and crystal clear sound and LOUD and you get the idea. Plus wine and friends. Those things are good, too. Helluva weekend. Toodles...
Remember Beth Orton? She was pretty cool, right? She started her career by boinking William Orbit, which led to appearances on a couple of his Strange Cargo albums and work with The Chemical Brothers, which made her the hip folk-tronica girl of the late '90s... and then she followed that up with a string of albums that maybe we're quite as electronic as you'd hoped but were still some nice acoustic singer/songwriter stuff with a little bit of synthy goodness. Nice husky voice, too. Remember her? Here's one she first did on the Strange Cargo Hinterland album, then came out with this stripped down version on her own debut record...
(DMCA'd? Really? F to the O.)
Remember that one? Huh?
Wish I had a better running joke for today's post? (You don't have to answer that one, I think we all know what you'll say...)
Gah, Monday. Rainy and cold and Monday-like. Let's try to make it slightly less shitty with a catchy Pop music ditty now, shall we?
So... another recurring feature around here that got pre-empted by Blog-achella was the occasional "Tone Heard A Good Song On KCRW, So Here It Is" post. Well, I heard a good song on KCRW a few days ago, Chris Douridas being the culprit this time... so here it is: Two Door Cinema Club are a new Electro-Pop act out of Northern Ireland and I don't know if they're any better or worse than any of the other three million such bands out there today... but damn, this remix of one of their tunes by Brazilian team The Twelves is gonna be one of my summer jawns of 2010 for sure... Pop songs don't get much more perfecter than this...
Cool steez coming from Kitsuné, who are branching out past their Fidget House roots quite nicely here. Someone get this shit on an iPod commercial, STAT!
The music posted on this blog is for evaluation purposes only and will be removed after a short time... so if you like it... support the artists, dammit! Buy the records, go to the shows, give them a ride to the airport if they need it! Don't be a schmuck! If you are an artist or scary lawyer type and want something removed from here, just holla and it's gone! I'm easy like that!
