12 posts tagged “music”
Tangerine filters your own iTunes library by beats per minute and beat intensity. As you adjust playlist parameters, a song count lets you know how many different tracks meet that criteria. Me? I have a preference for music in the 100 to 148 BPM range. Try it out for you yourself. The full-function demo is free for 15 days.
Any self-respecting Indie nerd has heard of these acts. If you haven't, well, it's never too late to get caught up. More than being great artists, today's bands all have something in common. Broken Social Scene started as a two man group from Toronto, Ontario. They debuted Feel Good Lost in 2001, and soon after added several new guest members, including (among others) Emily Haines from Metric and Leslie Feist to flesh out their live shows and add lyrics.
Leslie Feist then released her solo effort Let It Die in 2002, and she exploded. You've probably heard at least one track off this album whether you wanted to or not. Last year it was blaring through every car window and over every elevator speaker in the U.S. and Canada. And she deserves every bit of praise she's gleaned. Feist is fantastic, mixing lounge, Indie, and disco into a husky mash of hits. Notable Feist trivia includes the fact that she was roommates with Peaches and was featured on the Teaches of Peaches, and that she got her start after winning a battle of the bands and winning an opening slot for the Ramones.
So then, what does she have to do with Indie-electronica idols Postal Service (side project of Deathcab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard if you didn't know)? They contributed a track to an album of Feist remixes called Open Season. There's a lot more to this story, but I'll leave you to Wiki search on your own. Enjoy these tracks!
French Kicks is similar in the way that each track builds over time, utilizing revolving rhythms. Both bands are infectious and have great lyrics, too. Take a listen.
M83 consists of Nicolas Fromageau and Anthony Gonzalez, and was formed in Antibes, France in 2001. The musical style owes something to the shoegazing genre in its extensive use of reverb and lyrics spoken softly over loud instrumentals.
M83's song "Unrecorded" from Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts was used in the trailer for the international release of the Russian movie Night Watch, and the track "Teen Angst", taken from Before the Dawn Heals Us, appears on the trailer for the film adaptation of A Scanner Darkly.
M83 produced the remix of the track "Pioneers" on British group Bloc Party's 2005 album Silent Alarm Remixed. They have also remixed Goldfrapp's "Black Cherry", Depeche Mode's "Suffer Well" and Bumblebeez 81's "Vila Attack".
The name M83 is picked from the galaxy of the same name. Go to Wikipedia for more.
Really watch this video to see just how perfectly they edited this piece. It's technically impressive, but it's also really nostalgic and filled with great archival footage of music legends alive and dead. Not a bad U2 song, either.
Client combines Scandinavian airline hostess uniforms with glamour-girl aesthetics and harsh electronics to create a New Wave sound. Their uniforms have become their trademark.
The original band members were formerly known only anonymously as Client A and Client B, to the extent that their faces were not shown on any publicity photo.
More from Wikipedia.
Both musicians have had experience with other projects, such as Mast's E*vax and Stroud's stage work with Ben Kweller, The Vash and Dashboard Confessional. Ratatat has toured with bands such as Mouse on Mars, Interpol, Clinic, The Killers and more recently they supported Mogwai in Japan.
Listen to the track Lex in my audio library.
Last.fm allows you to search for and preview music. It then finds similar artists to suite you tastes. You, in turn, rate those results, making your "station" smarter. There's also a whole community element: friends, recommendations, etc. if you're into that (which, if you're reading this blog, you most likely are).
It does require you to create an account and download a proprietary last.fm app (which I'm not crazy about), BUT the idea is pretty fucking cool. Great way hear a lot of content, which you can then go off and torrent for free - oh, I mean buy.
Ladytron mixes elements from different genres of electronic music, although many define the band as electroclash. Unlike many electronic artists, Ladytron avoid using sampling in their shows, instead playing everything live, using synthesizers; in this they are similar to The Human League, from whom they have taken inspiration and progressed it with their own somewhat deadpan vision. In Reuben and Mira's words, they describe themselves as "Electronica with a fist" rather than electroclash. Ladytron's lyrics are often obscure, sometimes dominated by snippets of everyday life, and sometimes written in Bulgarian by Bulgarian band member Mira Aroyo.
