The Airborne Toxic Event :: In the back of a van

We've got exciting news from The Airborne Toxic Event. Not only does their first LP come out on August 5, they're also recording 10 acoustic versions of songs off the album in the 10 weeks leading up to the release. We're up to week five and arguably the strongest acoustic translation(as well as one of their best recorded tracks), "Does This Mean You're Moving On?" They recorded this version the back of a van speeding down Sunset Blvd. Lead-singer, Mikel Jollett introduced the song when they blew the doors off Pianos back in June with, "This next one is a dance song. But if you listen to the lyrics, it's really quite sad." True words from the man in the middle.


"Does This Mean You're Moving On" (Acoustic)

New Bloc Party :: "Mercury"

It's not supporting a new album but Bloc Party are back with another single release, "Mercury." In the spirit of their last single, "Flux," people are going to find this entirely unsettling. It's not quite the club banger that "Flux" briefly turned into but it dips in the same unregulated, electronic meat locker. Frontman Kele Okereke wrote "The Prayer" and just kept on going. Nothing is off-limits. What does this mean for their next record? Are we watching artistic growth or the kitchen sink being thrown into ProTools? Take a listen:



It's fated and battle cry all at once. When a planet goes in retrograde motion it is thought to astrologically predict certain events. The video, an obvious political allegory, seems to indicate the Western political system (read: ours, George Bush2, etc.) is completely and totally fucked. Is our president a lobster-clawed, Frankenstein creation? Bloc Party thinks so. It's hard to argue. As unsettling string-flourishes lifted right out of The Matrix burn in the background, Kele says, "you can be part of the war/from Silverlake to Williamsburg." He's calling the hip-set to conflict. And he's not done. The last meaningful lyrics are "this could be the start of something truly real/but all I could say was 'hey, hey, hey.'" It's a possible reference to "She's Hearing Voices," a song off the first Bloc Party record where Kele famously squeeks, "hey, hey, hey." It's damning and it's self-aware and by the fifth listen, "my Mercury's in retrograde" will be firmly in your head. It's just fate.

Forest Fire :: "Fortune Teller"

The song "Fortune Teller" is pure mixtape fodder. I don't love the rest of the record. I will, of course, encourage you to see for yourself. But, for me, Forest Fire's record is just ok. In fact, Motel Motel does a slightly more heartbreaking, alt-country version of the same sound. So you can download the album. Do it in a few minutes. It's free. You might like it.

But for now, this song is pure mixtape fodder. And it's great. You're burning a CD. You've got a playlist going. What can you stuff in the middle that will both excite and perplex people? You need a good track 11. You want something unrecognizable, so as to enhance your reputation as a selector of tunes, but it has to be solid, so as to enhance your reputation as a selector of tunes. It should thump a little bit and get itself noticed but not do too much. After all, you don't know very much about, nor do you all that much like, this band. You want this song to stick out by blending in. You want it to be perfectly noticed and also a little forgettable. The LAST thing you need is a conversation where someone asks "who is that?" and all you can come up with is "...it's Forest Fire." And then people are asking questions and you're stumped. You look like a moron. They continue: "Why did you put it on the mix if you don't know anything about them? Do you even like the album?" (See above). You had hoped this would go better.

The song is called "Fortune Teller." And it's perfect for your next mixtape. Just make sure people don't ask too many questions.

Listen :: Forest Fire - Fortune Teller

Happy 4th of July and Add Water Jamz from DJ Natty Heavy

It's America's 232nd Birthday people and you've got to figure your business out. It's a holiday we celebrate by eating things cooked over fire and shooting small arms fire into the sky. It's actually more like Afghanistan than we'd like to admit. So, like last year, I hope it's a good one and we'll be back Monday. You deserve this, America. Because, deep down, we fucking love this place that we've come to know. Happy 232.

I promised to never post blog-hop. This is not that. This is from our BOY. DJ (dee-jay!) Natty (natty!) Heavy (heavy!). (F-F-F-FOG-FOGHORN!). He produces the #1 morning radio show in South Carolina and he spins jams on the weekends while the best and brightest come out and pound the streets of Charleston. If you're in the area, you'll see him out and you can buy him a drink. Otherwise, for those of you not in the South, DJ Natty Heavy has cut us a mixtape for the Northerners who'd like to spend almost 40-minutes in the dirty. He even cuts the Ting Tings in there for you glam-rock, hipster shitheads. It's called Ya'll Can't Dance Vol.2 and it's up for free download on Nattyheavy.com. We're linking it up so you can download, put it in the iPod, add water and have straight cash on your speakers for the 4th of July. Check it up or check it out.

Listen :: DJ Nattyheavy - Ya'll Can't Dance Vol.2 (39:59)

Fleet Foxes :: "White Winter Hymnal" (in which we meditate the over-commodification of indie rock)

Has Sub Pop been secretly releasing the same record for the last five years? That's unfair. But at times Fleet Foxes sound like a Shins cover-band playing songs off Pet Sounds. Throw some Oh Brother Where Art Thou? in there while we're in a name-checking frenzy.

Fleet Foxes are, of course, more than just a cobbling of influences. They've been featured in the heaviest music publications and on the up-and-coming gangsta of the yuppie music scene ... NPR! (Holy shit! It's All Songs Considered! ) My Dad even looked over at me when "White Winter Hymnal" spun through the radio speakers two weeks ago. He didn't say anything and he didn't need to. It's inoffensive and delicate in all the right places. It's good new music for people that don't really have time to go find good new music. It's underrated and over-publicized. It's major label indie. Everything has officially lost its collective mind. Read that one more time.

Which is why, like Natalie Imbruglia, I'm torn. Is this song more than just okay? There's a 12% that this is really good. If it was self-released and not getting the Sub Pop treatment, would anyone be talking about it? How do we reconcile this stuff? How long does the jury stay out on this? Or have we gone all OJ Simpson 1994 (your second 90s pop culture check of the paragraph) and the jury is back - they've just made the wrong call. It's a little record and it's getting pushed big. At what point will "indie" be short for "industry" not "independent?" The world is upside down. This was the dream the revolution built. And I might be okay with that.

Listen :: Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

Fujiya & Miyagi :: "Knickerbocker" (stream)

Every morning two years ago, I would ride the B82 bus down Flatlands Ave at the end of the L train. I was in the middle of nowhere and it was crowded and full of extremely loud or angry high school students. I was wearing a tie. I looked, at the very least, like a d-bag. I would fill my iPod shuffle with new music and turn it up until I couldn't hear anything but the first Tokyo Police Club EP (holyshitthisthingisamazing) or whatever else I thought could drown out everything else that was happening around me. Your earbuds need to be jacked to not hear "fuck you, white boy" twice-a-day.

Enter Fujiya & Miyagi and their hypnotic first single, "Ankle Injuries." It didn't hurt that I was tweaking my own old ankle sprain on a bi-weekly basis. It also didn't hurt that the thumping bass line and the driving repetition was one of the few songs that never left my "oh god, how much longer can i work this job?" playlist. It kept things moving. It showed up. It was there when I needed it.

The band is back with a new record, Lightbulbs and it seems like it's going to be more of the same: Electronic soundscapes mixed with repetitive, yet compelling lyrics and that same thumping bass that seemed like it exploded out of an LCD Soundsystem record. First single, "Knickerbocker" has a non-sequiter chorus that can't help but get lodged in your brain stem. In fact, "Vanilla, strawberry, Knickerbocker glory" might be the most memorable nonsense of the year.

And if you need more inspiration, maybe let some angry teenagers throw shit at you. You are wearing a tie. You turn. You stare. You are, finally, not afraid.

Listen :: Fujiya & Miyagi - Ankle Injuries (courtesy of Ryan's Smashing Life)

Listen :: Fujiya & Miyagi - Knickerbocker (stream)

On The List :: Ben Gibbard @ The Hiro Ballroom [6.30.08]

"Silver Lining" (Rilo Kiley)

We're going up late with this because, well, this event was an open bar and then we ended up closing a bar back in Brooklyn. So, great work all around. When I left the Hiro Ballroom, just one of the three bars that were serving drinks had rung up a tab of over 3,500 dollars. I think when Rhapsody invited a rag-tag bunch of bloggers, music writers, and industry heavy-hitters , they didn't think we had such a drinking problem. The event was a press briefing to announce "Music without limits." Basically, Rhapsody is going DRM-free in partnership with MTV, iLike, and Verizon. It's complicated as hell but Rhapsody is going to make a serious run at the iTunes music store in terms of being a distributor of mp3s. Two years from now we'll either look back on this announcement as the time when a company finally knocked Apple on its ass or we'll see it as another failed attempt to rip digital revenue away from iTunes. It was over three years in the making and a lot of interesting (read: powerful) people are throwing their weight behind this. In other news, EMI is laying off a thousand workers. Yeah, the music industry is fit as a fucking fiddle.

More importantly, Ben Gibbard played the second-half of the event. He was mutton-chopped and completely engaging. At one point he expressed, "Wow, this is totally not how I thought this was gonna be. In a good way. (laughter, clapping) I mean, you guys are like, listening to me ... and that's really great!" He ran through a set of Death Cab material ("405," "Photobooth," "Title and Registration") and Gibbard originals like "Carolina" off the Home V split he did with Andrew Kenny of American Analog Set. He also covered Stars "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" and did a spot-on, gut-check version of Rilo Kiley's "Silver Lining" - a song he introduced as "by my friend Jenny." He even ran through some Postal Service material, playing "Brand New Colony" and crushing everyone in sight.


"Brand New Colony" (Postal Service)

We've got some video from last night and ... a raging hangover. Thanks to Rhapsody and every other piece of corporate machinery that led to last night. It's hard to hate The Man when The Man buys all your drinks and let's you stand five feet from one of the better songwriters of the last 10 years. Oh and he closed with "I'll Follow You Into The Dark." So, there was that too.

"I Will Follow You Into The Dark"