MNDR :: "I Go Away" [The Oos & Ahs Remix]

New York production team The Oos & Ahs have turned Brooklyn pop starlet MNDR's "I Go Away" into what they call "the dub step remix." The irony here being that the original is slightly more "dubby" (and it's moments like these where you realize how stupid genre descriptions are). So, we turn our focus to the tangible, a well-spun, soaring remix of an already catchy song. Here, they've given Amanda helium vocals (thanks, pitch adjust!) and glittering electronics as the solar system for the chorus to whir through. The final elevations of the refrain shock our sensibilities, big synths stabbing the bottom of the mix as MNDR soars up to the top of the room, flitting around like a bee trapped in a florescent light fixture. The lyrics insist she'll go away (did the title give that away too soon?) but here she is trapped in this hot mess of electronics that she built and the Oos & Ahs retrofitted into this sweeping castle. It's a pretty prison, and doesn't feel a bit like a jail.

I Go Away (The Oos & Ahhs Dubstep Remix) by nymc

The Head And The Heart :: "Lost In My Mind"

Like a staircase with little regard for its surrounding architecture or general utility, Sub Pop's edifying folk band, The Head And The Heart have never seen a major key they didn't like and are firmly setting a course for higher elevations. On "Lost In My Mind" they begin small, a tiny acoustic guitar progression (it's folk; what did you expect?) before opening up to bigger and bigger and bigger harmonies. Like Mumford and Sons if you swapped the banjos for keys ("I hear that you and your band have sold your banjos and bought pianos/ I hear that you and your band have sold your pianos and bought banjos") The Head And The Heart channel life affirming lyrics and chord progressions. These are songs made to feel like something to everyone, like all great pop, just oblique enough to allow for interpretation and just general enough to apply to almost any part of the human condition. But this, like Hegel or Icarus, is built only for the sky, however flawed that premise may be.

Listen :: The Head And The Heart - "Lost In My Mind"

AgesandAges :: "No Nostalgia"

Like the combined works of Carl Newman, the progressive group folk of AgesandAges manages to breathlessly synthesize influences without sounding particularly pedantic or too heavily footnoted. On the perhaps ironic, "No Nostalgia", the band, a seven-piece from Portland, channels leading guitar lines and some intentionally shabby - though nonetheless indebted - versions of the group harmonies that can still work the Mamas and the Papas into a playlist of songs for a serious mixtape. The unrushed tempo, the funk of a twisting guitar, and the only barely restrained (or do I mean organized?) exuberance all add up to something that will have you drumming your fingers on a local inanimate object. The keyboard is the final New Pornographers give away, playfully referencing a soon to be contemporary and breaking just enough new ground.

Listen :: AgesandAges - "No Nostalgia"

Various Cruelties :: "Neon Truth"

The UK's indie soul spitters Various Cruelties are ready with their next single, "Neon Truth". It tips towards the type of sound that Kings Of Leon made so popular 24 months ago or put another way, it does what US Royalty never quite got around to. The shabby guitars mix with reverby vocals that sound like they were recorded into a wax paper microphone, like some Razorlight A-side from the "America" sessions. This is a certainly dense series of references, and one that might not be intensely useful, rather the fear being that it reads like a dissuasive trail of Hansel and Gretel crumbs. Instead, Various Cruelties are worth watching and following, even into the woods.

LCD Soundsystem :: "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" @ Madison Square Garden [4.2.11]

Goodnight Moon/...Goodnight room/ Goodnight moon/ Good night cow jumping over the moon/ Goodnight light/ And the red balloon/ Goodnight bears/ Goodnight chairs/ Goodnight kittens/ And goodnight mittens/ Goodnight clocks/ And goodnight socks/ Goodnight little house/ And goodnight mous/ Goodnight comb/ And goodnight brush/ Goodnight nobody/ Goodnight mush/ And goodnight to the old lady/ whispering "hush"/ Goodnight stars/ Goodnight air/ Goodnight noises everywhere

Goodnight LCD Soundsystem. The pleasure was certainly all ours.

The Strokes :: "Take It Or Leave It" @ Madison Square Garden [4.1.11]

In a show that featured a guest spot by Elvis Costello on up-coming second single from Angles, "Taken For A Fool", the Strokes still elected to close their encore with a staple from their first record, "Take It Or Leave It". Casablancas was his usual bizarre self, punctuating sentences with unnecessary swear words and wearing high tops the color of a highlighter. But, for a band that has taken a seemingly unending stream of criticism about their internal relations, they successfully united around their MSG show, sounding tight and furious throughout, managing to fill an arena with the sounds of the best club rock band of the past 10 years. On "Take It Or Leave It", Casablancas drove into the crowd for the second time, finding himself at the bottom of one of the 100-level sections, screaming into the darkness. 13,000 people joined him. In a tender moment, Casablancas awkwardly nudged Albert Hammond Jr. upon his return to the stage. For two guys that clearly aren't totally fond of each other, it was a declaration of a momentary, "Hey, remember this used to be fun?" The audience agreed. It didn't matter that almost none of us were there at the Mercury Lounge in 2001-2002. After all, as Casablancas reminded us, "everyone has been playing the same song for ten years." They played it again, we took it, and they left.

The Strokes :: "Angles For The Young" [An Alternate Proposal]

Could New York's most darling band have combined their front man's solo record and their most recent LP and started saving their legacy? The band plays a sold-out Madison Square Garden this evening.

The collective anticipation for the latest Strokes LP Angles was followed by a group exhale riddled with the disappointing notes of a sigh. This wasn't what we wanted, especially the latter half of the album. These emotions were quickly ratified by a series of editorial pieces about the record, most of which refused to even address its musical content, choosing to focus on the methodology of the album making. All criticism distilled down to the functional reality that the Strokes tried to make a more equitable song writing process and had essentially failed. Barbs were traded. Casablancas is a dictator. These other guys are schlubs. Hammond was on drugs and then in rehab. Casablancas finally copped to the need to make a fifth Strokes LP as quickly as possible, either an ode to how comparatively mediocre Angles was or a need to finally escape the grip of the totalitarian five record deal the band has with RCA. But it didn't have to go this way did it? Or, at the very least, we can envision a different path for the band.

So for a moment, let us ride the counterfactual train into 2008 when the band could have taken some of Casablancas' ideas (and their reluctance to do drove him to make Phrazes), added a few of their own and made a record truly worth the wait. In essence, drop the filler off Angles and fill it with the most reasonable matches from Phrazes For The Young. After the jump, we give you, Angles For The Young, the Strokes album that never happened but maybe should have.