Albert Hammond Hearts Me
I go with the mindset there is a time and place for (most) music. And sometimes you want want fun music. You don't want to think about it, you just want the music to be good. I know The Strokes have a tainted past in some indie mindsets because of their "priviledged" upbringing, and perhaps their luck at getting signed was not so much about talent or luck. I don't really by it, but either way I was entertained by the music and ultimately that is what I want from it.
I would say Hammond's latest release is a far more polished (less garage) sounding album than any of The Strokes album leaning more towards Spoon than, well, The Stokes.
Oh so funny Albert Hammond story, when The Strokes first played Miami at Billboard Live (that promising live music venue that fizzled and now is Dolce - yes that Dolce of Dolce Gabana) my friends and I waited outside for the band to come out. Between one friend standing in the street to prevent the bus from moving so she could see Julian Casablancas and my other friend getting a kiss from another band member, my girlfriend at the time got my shirt signed by Hammond. Except he though he was signing it for her so now my Strokes shirt shows how much he "hearts" me. Oh and Julian finally did come out and blow my friend a kiss right before the bus almost ran her over.
MP3: Rocket zhsare/ysi
MP3: Borrowed Time zshare/ysi
And from his previous release, Yours To Keep ..
MP3: Back to the 101 zshare/ysi
4th of July Kick-Off Thursday @ APT/Love/Hate w/NYC's Prince Language + Shaka 23!!
Ready for a 4th of July Party??? Well 3rd actually...
Thursday, July the 3rd APT & The Colonel in Association with Love/Hate Present our Independence Day Jam!! NYC Rocks Miami Beach!!! We're gonna be flying in Prince Language (NYC) along with Shaka 23 (NYC) for a Big Ass Dance Party along with APT Resident's Jonathan, Josh and Your's Truly/Ray Milian. There's no Work or School Friday for 4th of July and an Open Bar from 10 to 11:30, so it's gonna get Crazy!!!
To help wet your appetites here are some Prince Language Remixes. Most recently he did a Great Dub Mix for DFA's Juan MacLean Happy House track. Here's that plus a great Remix he did for the Stateless track Prism #1 & NYC Beat by Armand Van Helden. There's also a cool Joakim Lonely Hearts Remix and a Remix of the Rapture's Get Myself Into It on his MySpace player.
Don't have any MP3's from Shaka 23, but not only does she have the looks she can mix too! She's gonna be spinning Saturday @ RokBar but you can catch her here first! Check out her MySpace page for press, pics and mixes from her. Can't wait!
See you there!
MP3: Happy House (Prince Language Dub Mix) - The Juan Maclean (YSI)
MP3: Prism #1 (Prince Language Remix) - Stateless (YSI)
MP3: NYC Beat (Prince Language Remix) - Armand Van Helden (YSI)
APT is held every Thursday @ Love/Hate
423 Washington Ave
Miami Beach
10PM-5AM
$5 Cover
OPEN BAR 10-11:30!!!
APT MySpace
Faint Feeling Fasciinatiion
I remember when I was with PopLife and we brought them down on a couple of occasions to the Polish American Club here in Miami. They were some cool ass dudes. The lead singer Todd went through my CD's while I was spinning and he was commenting how we pretty much had the same taste in music. Then I gave him some stuff to burn onto his laptop and he made me a CD with some of the music he was into. Included in that CD was a new artist by the name of Mylo. Didn't know it then, but they would go on to have a pretty amazing record 'Destroy Rock & Roll' not too long afterwards. Drop the Pressure anyone?
Anyways enough reminiscing. The Faint are Back with New Album 'Fasciinatiion' scheduled to be released August the 5th. Seems they're releasing it on their own label Blank.Wav versus Saddle Creek which put out their previous records. The first single is called 'The Geeks Were Right' and it's pretty much Classic Faint. If you've been a fan of theirs this should be right up your alley. Classic vocoder vocals, dancey beats and synths sure to get you shaking it on the dancefloor. Wondering how much play or how they will do in todays scene. Although they are pretty smart guys, so I'm sure they will be getting some cool new kids to remix their tracks and introduce them to a whole new audience. In addition here's a Classic Faint Track off of Danse Macabre.
The Faint contacted us saying they'd prefer if we use the player from their website for their new track, so here it is.
MP3: Your Retro Career Melted (YSI)
Fasciinatiion Tracklisting::
“Get Seduced”
“The Geeks Were Right”
“Machine in the Ghost”
“Fulcrum and Lever”
“Psycho”
“Mirror Error”
“I Treat You Wrong”
“Forever Growing Centipedes”
“Fish in a Womb”
“A Battle Hymn for Children”
The Verve Return!
We haven't heard new Material from them since their Classic 1997 album Urban Hymns which is one of my favorite all time albums with the brilliant and possibly one of the best songs ever written Bitter Sweet Symphony. Remember all the problems they had with that Rolling Stones string sample? I think they ended up losing most of the profits from Bitter Sweet, but it still couldn't stop them from shooting to super stardom. Only problem is when they finally got there, they broke up... What a sad day that was.
Richard Ashcroft went on to release several solo albums, which although not bad didn't live up to the magic they had with Urban. It was time for their Return.
With no further ado here's what I've been waiting on for almost 11 years! Woo, that's a long wait...
MP3: Love is Noise (YSI)
Appropriate for this post The Verve performing 'Lucky Man' @ Coachella earlier this year. Damn me for missing this!
Name Your Price
However, if you pay nothing, you will have to give a reason why you want the album for free (320 kbps by the way). $5 gets you lossless FLAC files and for $10 you get a physical copy when it is released on September 23rd.
The Wikipedia article is the best part though, the album has a gazillion samples and the article helps identify those "I know that song, it's on the tip of my tongue" moments you will most certainly have while listening to the album.
Girl Talk - Feed the Animals via Illegal Art
MP3: Grizzly Bear - Knife (Girl Talk Remix) zshare/ysi
(whoa, just realized this is a newer version of the same remix I was playing last year, Girl Talk cleaned it up and gave it more punch...)
So does this mean that Radiohead's experiment might have actually caused some change in the industry?
Moon over...[insert your city here]
After all these years, scientists still aren't sure. When you look at the Moon, rays of moonlight converge and form an image about 0.15 mm wide on the retina in the back of your eye. High moons and low moons make the same sized spot, yet the brain insists one is bigger than the other. Go figure.
A similar illusion was discovered in 1913 by Mario Ponzo, who drew two identical bars across a pair of converging lines, like the railroad tracks pictured right. The upper yellow bar looks wider because it spans a greater apparent distance between the rails. This is the "Ponzo Illusion."
Either way if the weather is right, you should an amazing evening sky. Take pictures and post them back! I'm going to try and sneak into my friend's soon to be new apartment in my building which has a PERFECT view of downtown Miami. So hopefully I'll get some nice moon over Miami shots.
That picture above is not the moon though, it is the cover for Studio's next release, Yearbook 2 coming out next week which is a compilation of their most recent remixes. I have been playing some of these out (if I see the moment is right, mood it is critical to these songs) and they are well received. So glad I am to see them finally get put together. In fact I personally vouch for the first three tracks. All are amazing. Preview the album here.
Also, listen to how they transform Kylie's track. From disco diva to almost Stevie Nicks mysticism.
YEARBOOK 2
1. Brown Piano - A Mountain of One (Version by Studio)
2. Impossible - Shout Out Louds (Version by Studio)
3. Turn The Radio Off - Love Is All (Version by Studio) MP3 zshare/ysi
4. Room Without A Key - Rubies (Version by Studio)
5. Escape From Chinatown - Brennan Green (Version by Studio)
6. 2 Hearts - Kylie Minogue (Version by Studio) MP3 zshare/ysi
7. Love On A Real Train - Williams (Version by Studio)
I pull the curtains down and leave the sunshine out...
I turn the radio on... Hey world! I've had enough...
POW!!! Dancefloor Stompers Edition
First off here's Canadian artist Vivek Shraya. Seems he's not signed yet, despite getting some pretty good blog love already. I like the original for 'If We're Not Talking' but this Rodion Remix being released June the 30th is even better, especially if you're thinking you'd like to try this on the dancefloor! Check out both their myspace's for alot more good stuff.
MP3: If We're Not Talking (Rodion Remix) - Vivek Shraya (YSI)
Next here's a track by French Man Joachim Garraud called 'The Sound of Disco'. Here it's remixed by Dani Deahl & Mike Gillenwater to great effect! It's a great track especially for electroclash lovers. Is that a bad word now? Don't worry you could probably call it electro house or a million other names so that your friends don't think you're a loser.
MP3: The Sound of Disco (Dani Deahl & Mike Gillenwater Remix) - Joachim Garraud (YSI)
Here's Kid Filthy's Remix of Foals track 'Electric Bloom'. The Foals are more of a minimal rock band from the UK, but this remix is made for the dancefloor. Second take I assume. Dark and Dancey, like I like'em. Look into the Foals regular material as well. Good stuff!
MP3: Electric Bloom (Kid Filthy's Take 2 Remix) - Foals (YSI)
What do you get when you mix Santogold, Julian Casablancas (The Strokes) and Pharell Williams? Easy! A Hit!!! Here's a track they did to celebrate the Converse 100 Year Annv! Chris sent me this track, but didn't wanna post it cause he thought it had been blogged to death. I figure some of you just find new shit from us. No? Fuck it, I'll post it anyways...MP3: My Drive Thru (feat. Santogold & Julian Casablancas) - N.E.R.D. (YSI)
I Love Feist! Not only does she do amazing pop music, but her tracks are also perfectly suited for the Remix. Like this Escort Remix of 'I Feel It All' with horns, marching drums & clapping. Not a dance jam in the vein of these other tracks, but just as good.MP3: I Feel it All (Escort Remix) - Feist (YSI)
Mute Audio Documents
Ran into a post the other day on Missingtoof about Mute's Box Set called Mute Audio Documents 1978-1984. Mute was one of the first independent labels to put out amazing new music/artists in that post punk era from industrial, to synthpop, experimental and more. The first song they ever put out was The Normal's Classic Warm Leatherette by Label Owner Daniel Miller which is considered to be one of the first industrial tracks ever made with it's crunchy sounds and gated effects. They later put out tons of amazing music by heavyweights such as Depeche Mode, Yaz, Nick Cave, Cabaret Voltaire etc, as well as many lesser known underground bands as well.
While I was going through some of the sample tracks they had in the post I ran into some tracks I liked by Fad Gadget and The Assembly. I had heard of Fad Gadget and some of these more obscure bands as I was growing up but I never really got into them. Now in my old age I'm digging some of these. Particularly Fad Gadget's Love Parasite and The Assembly's Stop Start.
Here they are for your enjoyment... Go to Missingtoof for their Mute Post and additional tracks for you to check out/download.
MP3: Love Parasite - Fad Gadget (YSI)
MP3: Stop Start - The Assembly (YSI)
Here's The Normal's Video for TVOD the B-Side to Warm Leatherette.
Censorship Used For Good
On a side note, Cook recently told The Sun: "Yes, I am ditching the Fatboy Slim name, but I can’t tell you the new one. I’m going to take the Fifth Amendment on that question and not say because I'll get myself into trouble.”
Anyways, the track features guest spots by David Byrne (Talking Heads) and Dizzee Rascal. And in the video, Norman makes a cameo around minute 2:26 (kinda hard to miss). The single is out on July 7th. I wonder if there is an uncensored version? hahaha
As Fatboy Slim, Cook always released stellar videos. Remember the renegade improvised interpretive dance in Praise You, or how about Christopher Walken's dance moves in Weapon of Choice? Just scroll click through these.
Beck is Back
Album details were sketchy in the beginning of the year, secret product, end of the year release date, etc... But all those questions have been (sorta) answered and the LP should drop sometime this month. Oh and did I mention that Cat Power has a guest spot on it?
The first single, Chemtrails, was released a few weeks ago and premiered on no less than BBC Radio 1 (has a better ring to it than Y-100. Radio in Miami is ridiculously lame...).
And so far so good, I have always been a fan of Beck and I do not think he is going to disappoint with his 10th full length release (TEN!!!). I am digging the guitar solo at the end of Chemtrails. I read some comments on different blogs making comparisons to Caribou. What do you guys think?
Anyways, here is a lowish-bitrate but listenable MySpace rip. Also, grab a cool remix of Nausea by XXXChange (Spank Rock crew) that might allow you to forgive me for the quality of Chemtrails. XXXChange is on a roll, check out his remix of Thom Yorke's The Eraser and Bjork's Earth Intruders if you have a chance.
MP3: Chemtrails
MP3: Nausea (XXXChange Remix)
Here is a video of the title track, Modern Guilt, performed a couple of days ago at a secret show in L.A.
Mail Bag
Been awhile since I've done a Mail Bag. Good stuff sent in to us?! Us bloggers love that! Not having to search for new music just open up our inbox and bam there it is! Can't beat that! If you guys have cool stuff you'd like featured on our blog feel free to send it our way. I'd prefer you send mine to offtheradarfridays@gmail.com, AOL's a bitch sometimes. Send MP3's 192 Kbps or better if possbile. If it's good/matches our style we'll put it up. Simple as that...
Here's some of the latest goodness that's been sent our way...
First here' a couple of tracks from Canadian Electro-Pop duo Bikini. Go to their myspace page to read up on some of their history, pretty interesting. One's an original track 'I Remember Being Young' and the other's a cover of Feist's 1234. Not too shabby...
MP3: I Remember Being Young - Bikini (YSI)
MP3: 1234 (Feist Cover) - Bikini (YSI)
Next here's a young man called White Williams. You can see an interview of him on my previous Public Access post. He's on Domino Records and supported Vampire Weekend on their last tour. His new album's called 'Smoke' and is apprently doing pretty good. Here's a track they sent me from the album called 'Fleetwood Crack' and his latest video for his new single 'Violator'.
MP3: Fleetwood Crack - White Williams (YSI)
Next from NY we have Samuel. Love that name, very Biblical. Samuel sent us a great track called 'Say Goodbye'. It's very poppy and very easy to get stuck in your head! Apparently his band features Wade Oates from The Virgins as well. See what you think. He's got a few more on his myspace page if your hungry for more.
MP3: Say Goodbye - Samuel (YSI)
Finally I leave you with a Smoking Hot Danger TV remix they sent me of We Are Scientists' new single Chick Lit. The original version of this track rips off the Daft Punk 'Robot Rock' riff pretty badly, but it's nowhere to be heard here.
MP3: Chick Lit (Danger TV Remix Edit) - We Are Scientists (YSI)
Public Access
Here's a couple of the Remixes Health talk about in their Interview. They're a pretty cool L.A. band I recently found out about. These remixes are much dancier than what they usually sound like (they're much darker, experimental & rocky), but that's the point of the remix. Plus they want DJ's playing these out, so get to it!
MP3: TRICERATOPS (CFCF RMX) - HEALTH (YSI)
MP3: HEAVEN (NARCTRAX REMIX) - HEALTH (YSI)
Symphony of Machines
But I am pretty sure this is the only one that has ever been mentioned on the Radiohead blog.
James Houston, the creator/composer/remixer/producer(?), took the competition to an entirely different level. He explains:
"Based on the lyric (and alternate title) "Big Ideas: Don't get any" I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they're trying their best to do something that they're not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.Equipment used:
It doesn't sound great, as it's not supposed to."
- Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Guitars (rhythm & lead)
- Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer - Drums
- HP Scanjet 3c - Bass Guitar
- Hard Drive array - Act as a collection of bad speakers - Vocals & FX
Give the video a minute or so... you'll understand. By the 1:37, the brilliance of the video appears. And by the way, no human voices used were used.
488 Words About Styrofoam
I really need to stop referencing that band as the go-to example for any electropop band this decade, for example Styrofoam was around a few years before PS's Give Up. The Postal Service might have been the one to break into the mainstream but they are not necessarily the ambassadors of the genre. Ben Gibbard actually also just recently quelled some rumors about the futures of The Postal Service...basically don't hold your breath.
“The second Postal Service album is threatening to become the Chinese Democracy of indie rock,” Gibbard tells Rolling Stone. “It will come out eventually, or maybe it won’t.”Back in 2004, Ben also did the vocals to Styrofoams track, Couches in Alleys.
Oh and he also has a blog, Styrofoam's Starry Skies.
I am including a remix Styrofoam did of a local Miami band (and very good friends of the blog) Dance, Jenny. Check them out too. I have an (quite possibly the only?) autographed copy of their album La Música Pop. Maybe I should drop that sucker on eBay and score some big bucks! They had a free remix EP up for download a while ago called McDonalds Put Me To Work featuring the remix below by Styrofoam and others by chiisai-oto, Sleepy Eyes, and the_viirus. If you guys are nice, drop me an email (and a comment or two every once in a while would be nice too) and I'll send you a digi-copy.
And after talking so much about The Postal Service... why not a Styrofoam remix of said band also?
MP3: The Postal Service - Nothing Better (Styrofoam Mix)
MP3: Dance, Jenny - Sex is Free (Styromix by Styrofoam) // (zp3)
From A Thousand Words
MP3: Bright Red Helmet
MP3: A Thousand Words
(And yes, according to MS Word (minus this note) the blog is 488 words long.)
MGMT = Electric Feel
I have to say I wasn't the biggest fan at first, but they've grown on me and now I can't get enough of them. Their debut album 'Oracular Spectacular' has got to be one of the best albums of 2008 so far. Also just found out Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev) worked with them on the record. How great is that!? No wonder the album sounds so good. Dave's one of the best sound engineers/producers on the planet! He makes every band he works with sound that much better. How great is it to get to work with him on your first record out!
Here is an interview they did for NME plus them Live on Letterman and a few mash-ups/remixes I have for them. I particularly like the Hip Hop mash-up DJ Topcat did with them and Talib Kweli. Works perfect.
MP3: Time to Listen (DJ Topcat Mashup) - Talib Kweli Vs MGMT (YSI)
MP3: The Youth (MMMatthias Remix) - MGMT (YSI)
MP3: All My Children (Immuzikation Mashup) - LCD Soundsytem Vs MGMT (YSI)
Broken
So my CPU fan busted last week and my computer was going nuts, shutting down, beeping. Put me out of commission for a week. Thank god for my GF's Mac. Only thing is I had none of my music on there so I couldn't post anything. My brother finally saved the day by bringing me a much smaller and prettier, albeit noisier HP Compaq that they weren't using at his job. Apparently they have like 40 lying around that they were gonna donate. He managed to put all my old stuff on the new one too! Plus some added memory that was on this one. Which is good, I was starting to run out. Thanks to Chris for holding the fort while I was out...
Since I had to re-start I-Tunes I kinda lost all my old playlists so I'm starting from scratch again! Although sometimes it's kinda refreshing to get rid of all the crappy music that accumulates and you never listen to and just have the bare neccesities. Luckily this time of the year there is also so much new music being put out for the summer it's not too difficult to get cool new stuff. Just in a couple of days I did my rounds on the blogs and managed to put together two new playlists worth of good stuff.
Here's some of them....
First here is something I never thought I'd post, a song featuring Kanye West! I know, I know, but it's a remix and you can't hardly even hear him the way they remixed it. It's called American Boy by Estelle feat Kanye West and remixed by Kill the Noize. It's a banging house track! I played it all this week-end at Vagabond, Circa and Purdy and it worked wonderfully at all of them. It's got such a feel good vibe everyone dug it right away. There's also a good Lazr Tag Remix out that is almost as good. You can find it on Hype.
MP3: Estelle feat Kanye West - American Boy (Kill the Noize Remix) (YSI)
Next here's something you probably wouldn't expect me to post either, especially Chris... Hip Hop! It's a track by a group called Playdoe called It's the Beat and it's another great party track. Played it out this week with great results as well.
MP3: Playdoe - It's the Beat (YSI)
Here's a new track by Ratatat called Mirando. Noticing alot of people using spanish names for tracks nowadays. It's a pretty sweet track. Seems like they're still resisting adding vocals and keeping their music intrumental. They are so good they can get away with it, but it still would be nice to have some guest vocalists for a few tracks, no?
MP3: Ratatat - Mirando (YSI)
How great is the new Cut Copy album! Have a feeling it will be topping many Best Of lists at the end of the year. Been playing the latest single Lights and Music like crazy. Can't get enough of it. People seem to dig it too, get alot of requests for them. Here is a New Remix I got for Lights and Music by Moulinex that is pretty sweet! *Also just in as I was finishing this post Chris sent me a bad ass remix of Hearts on Fire by Holy Ghost! So fresh it's not even on Hype Machine yet! Here is that one too. A double whammy! Big money, big money...
MP3: Cut Copy - Lights and Music (Moulinex Remix) (YSI)
MP3: Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire (Holy Ghost Remix) (YSI)
Finally I leave you with Nuuro from Venezuela who now resides in NY. Got this off of my favorite spanish language blog Le Touch. This track Diamante is an excellent pop track! Don't even have to understand what he's singing about to know it's good. Apparently you can download his whole EP off of his MySpace page as well. Get to it...
MP3: Nuuro - Diamante (YSI)
Here's the New Video for Black Kids New Single Hurricane Jane...
They Make It Good
"…not a dj mix in the live sense, but yea I am a DJ and i mixed/edited all these
songs and sound bytes together. I started with the basic format for a mix, other
peoples music. Not satisfied with that, I put in some original material I have
made or collaborated on, and did some edits of older songs in an attempt to
re-introduce them. "-Chris Devlin
Good Morning
Good morning everybody. Busy weekend. It is kinda crazy when Monday mornings seem quiet?!? I had a little bit of everything this weekend. Family, friends, chores, and parties...
I missed Modeselektor (and wasted a ticket...) but I heard it was amazing. I managed to make it out to downtown around 3am, I think... things got a little blurry around that time.
MP3: Junior Boys - In The Morning (Hot Chip Remix) (YSI)
I love when the synths and vocals come in around 1:50.
Audio Junior Boy's "In the morning" set to Godard's "Bande à Part" dance scene.