Build Voice - Dan Deacon
Dan Deacon's live shows are communal experiences, in which ecstatic crowds twist and turn in time with the knobs on the Baltimore electronic music performer's jury-rigged DJ station.
Electronic/Dance
Dan Deacon's live shows are communal experiences, in which ecstatic crowds twist and turn in time with the knobs on the Baltimore electronic music performer's jury-rigged DJ station.
Helicopter - Bloc Party
It's pretty easy to argue that Bloc Party's 2005 debut, Silent Alarm, was the high point of the dance-punk craze that peaked a few years ago. It met the quota for Gang of Four-style pointiness but combined it with an emotional heft rare in the genre--the melancholy wail of front man Kele Okereke clicked with the group's deceptively catchy thump to give the music a cathartic, dance-your-bad-feelings-away groove not dissimilar to what you get from Donna Summer's better jams.
Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Sign o' the times: Band records album, band plots April 13 release date, album leaks, band quickly unleashes album digitally, band moves physical release date up to March 31. Such is life for a hot young rock group these days, and even the artists can't get too worked up about it.
Amsterdam - Peter Bjorn and John
Swede pop trio Peter Bjorn and John is currently streaming their forthcoming release, Living Things, on MySpace. I'm only two songs deep and I'm already digging on it, though it's not really at all what I expected nor does it remind me of 2006's blissfully sublime Writer's Block or 2008's quirky Seaside Rock.
Shut the Club Down - Girl Talk
One of the hottest DJs on the scene right now isn't really a DJ at all. Girl Talk -- the stage name and dance-music project of 27-year-old Pittsburgh native Gregg Gillis -- is more an electronic music phenomenon than anything else. His fourth album, 2008's Feed the Animals, impressed respected music pundits despite being almost entirely composed of several hundred samples from other artists' songs.
Forever Heavy - Black Moth Super Rainbow
Black Moth Super Rainbow makes some of the most tripped-out experimental music you'll hear around these days, psychedelic electro-rock that belongs in a sci-fi space odyssey done in the 1970's. And it's not like that hard to sit through, hard to appreciate experi stuff -- Black Moth's music is vibrant, a rainbow of flavors that practically jumps out of the speakers to get your notice. I saw them open for Aesop Rock in '07 and was impressed at how well their music translated live. (The visuals helped.)
The band has recently announced the May 26 Graveface Records release of their fourth full-length, Eating Us (cover pictured at left). A medly from the album is currently streaming on the band's MySpace page. It's pretty good and I'm intrigued.
Buffalo Tears - Gil Mantera’s Party Dream
I'm a big fan of Gil Mantera's Party Dream. The previous time the synth pop duo-turned-recent-trio (drummer A.E. Paterra joined last tour) came through town, I did a little one-on-one phoner with Ultimate Donny, where he told me that he and Gil had been writing new music throughout last year and planned on releasing an album in early '09, the first since their 2006 debut, Bloodsongs.
I Lied - Telefon Tel Aviv
Sad news just arrived via Telefon Tel Aviv's MySpace blog: Charlie Cooper, one half of the duo whose new album I wrote about in my January 15 column, was found dead yesterday at 2306 N. Lawndale.
His musical partner, Joshua Eustis, writes:
It breaks my heart to inform you all that Charlie Cooper, my better half in Telefon Tel Aviv, passed away on January 22nd.
Let You Go - Nico Vega
Pigeon-holing musicians or making comparisons to something well-known is often the easiest way to describe a band. Simply take parts of what's familiar and combine them to form an opinion of what's new or different. It's not that easy with Los Angeles' Nico Vega.
High Nero - Wilderness
With (k)no(w)here, Wilderness drifts further from the mathy and energetic post-punk bent of its early days into shimmering and serene atmospherics. Repetition is the key to unlocking the angelic beauty of the group's songs.
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