Cassette Kids combine the artistic sensibilities of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with the dramatic flair of No Doubt. As their Myspace page states, the band "make[s] the tamest dance floors gleam with sweat." True story!
Although the quartet is from Australia, they seem to be picking up steam here in the states. They are docketed to play SXSW in Austin, Texas this spring. Undoubtedly, a 2009 plug from the one and only Lily Allen has increased their exposure.
Check out Cassette Kids' video for 'Lying Around' above.
FreeAllMusic.com (FAM) recently launched its beta music download site to a limited number of invitees.
The site's concept is simple. Users are given five credits each Tuesday. To redeem a credit for a free song download, the user must watch a brief advertisement from the site's sponsors. The user can choose which commercial out of a selection of 15 or so to watch. After viewing, the download automatically begins. The mp3s have no DRM restrictions, and they are typically available in 256 kpbs or 320 kpbs quality.
The idea is that sponsors, through their video advertisements, end up subsidizing music purchases for the end user. So while the song may seem free to the end user, in actuality the sponsor has compensated the artist and label for the end user's download. In exchange for the user's time watching video advertisements, the user gets a free mp3. And in exchange for footing the bill for the mp3, the sponsor gets thirty seconds of direct marketing with the user.
In the three or so weeks I've had beta access to FAM, I've been very pleased. The song and artist selection is comprehensive. Top 40 hits from Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas are available, as are more obscure alternative spins from Crash Kings and The Features.
The site does have some limitations. You are given only five download credits per week, and the credits do not roll over into subsequent weeks. In other words, you must "use or lose" your credits within a seven day period. Additionally, not every music label is on board yet, so there are still a number of artists missing from the database. Finally, the interface is lacking. Notwithstanding a "Top 100 Songs of the Week" showcase, songs and artists are not presented to the user in the way that the Amazon or iTunes stores tend to promote up and coming or artistically significant tunes. Instead, the user must enter a basic search query into FAM's in-house search engine and sift through songs that may or may not be relevant.
Despite its setbacks, FAM is a huge winner in my book. The site is still in beta, so it's interface and offerings are bound to improve substantially. Most importantly, where else can one download twenty free mp3s per month while ensuring artist compensation? Nowhere, that's where. Due to this fact alone, FAM is one of my favorite new music sites of 2010.
If you are interested in signing up for a beta membership, head on over to http://www.freeallmusic.com. My invite took about a month to arrive after registration, so be prepared to be patient. The pay-off is well worth the wait.
Nneka is an Afro-German singer/songwriter whose soulful music has found a solid place in my rotation this year.
At 19, Nneka made the dramatic, cross-cultural leap from her native Nigeria to Hamburg, Germany to further her education and eventually pursue her music.
Since that time, Nneka's music has resonated with fans across the globe, including Lauryn Hill and Lenny Kravitz.
Nneka's music finds its roots in Afrobeat - her vocals ranging from freestyle raps to elegant neo-soul. It is music that is socially aware of its past and optimistic about its future. Nneka gives voice to the harsh realities of her African homeland - the poverty and militant government - but also the strength of her people.
She offers personal insight, not answers, and lends a fresh breath of hope to the struggles faced around the world. Nneka sings from her heart about the life that she knows, and you can feel it in her vocals.
Concrete Jungle, Nneka's first American album, was released earlier this month. Visit Nneka's Official Website and learn more about this great artist and her music.
Watch the video to her single, "Heartbeat" below:
You can catch her powerful television debut of the song from last week's Late Show with David Letterman right HERE (via YouTube)
And check out the official video to her also-fantastic song, "The Uncomforable Truth" (via YouTube VEVO)
Imogen Heap is a British singer/songwriter whose solo work gained increased mainstream success after her duo, Frou Frou, was included in the breakthrough Garden State soundtrack. The film's soundtrack created a large buzz for the single, "Let Go."
A year later, Heap released her lush 2005 solo album, Speak for Yourself.
Amongst the songs featured on the LP was "Hide and Seek" - an a cappela single that utilized a harmonizer to create a synthetic quality to Heap's vocals.Stream the video below:
"Hide and Seek" was showcased prominently in the tense ending moments of The O.C.'s season 2 finale. Watch the clip HERE (via YouTube). In the scene, a scuffle leads to a murder when a shot is fired in slow motion and abruptly met with the song's signature refrain, "Mmm, what you saaaay."
Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg then parodied the overly dramatic scene in the 2007 Digital Short, The Shooting, where the song is overused to the point of hilarity. Watch the skit HERE (via IDKWTF.com).
Under the casual title, "Dear Sister", the short quickly became an internet phenomenon, with legions of fans reenacting their own parodies using the song sample.
If you've turned on Top 40 radio anytime in the last 6 months, chances are you've heard Jason DeRulo's megahit R&B single, "Whatcha Say." DeRulo's 2009 sensation heavily samples the now-famous refrain for it's chorus.Stream the video below:
Even more recently, New Orleans hip hop duo, The Knux released the song, "Watchu Say," which also spins predominantly off of Heap's lyrics.Have a listen to it below:
The Knux - "Watchu Say"
Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" is yet another great example of a song that has continued to grow in popularity over a period of several years due to widespread pop culture and internet references.
Rogue Wave returns with a new album for a new decade.
Permalink is slated to drop later this year. In the meantime, the band has released its first single, 'Good Morning.' After a couple of spins, it is quite fetching.
On Odd Blood, the band takes its brand of culturally diverse pop music to new frontiers. Where its predecessor could generally be found someplace between Western and Middle Eastern influence, Odd Blood sounds almost like worldbeat for an Earth-like planet in a distant solar system.
One of the album's songs that has found steady rotation for me lately is "O.N.E."
"O.N.E." is like an '80s pop gem funneled through hazy reverb and tribal rhythms. There's something both nostalgic and futuristic about the song that's enough to start a global dance party. You can listen to it below:
And don't forget to watch the surreal video for "Ambling Alp" (via YouTube) - complete with creepy face massage, liquid floating heads and naked desert jogging!
From "proto-Sanskrit Minoans" to "Porto-centric Lisboans," Andrew Bird's dense lyrics occasionally read like a dissertation, but his sense of melody always pulls them back into range. His musicianship is outstanding - looping pizzicato violin with guitar and an otherworldly whistle that's enough to send shivers down your spine. Noble Beast is a pastoral record for Bird - mixing witty, alienated apocalypticism with a keen sense of belonging to the earth, its creatures and its history. Easily one of the best performers I saw this year, or any other.
Jack White and friends bring blues back to rock in this made-for-headphones LP. Distortion and reverb dominate this guitar-heavy voyage. Although the album can meander aimlessly in parts - albeit only briefly - the record provides a wonderful trad-rock alternative to the lo-fi songcraft that currently dominates much of the day.
While many have dismissed it as a lesser album than his original masterpiece, there is no doubt that Jay-Z still holds his reigning title on The Blueprint 3. It's a massive album, with all-star collaborations, including Alicia Keys, Timbaland and Rihanna. While anything but an underground hit, it would be hard to deny an album of such proportions the success it's received. "Empire State of Mind" is Jay's ode to NYC - calling himself the "new Sinatra." On "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-tune)," he carves a tombstone for phony rappers and the studio-enhanced vocals that have dominated the radio in the last part of the decade. Jay-Z never caters to pop culture. He sets the trends himself.
This French band has been writing catchy tunes for years, but hadn't seemed to be fully embraced stateside until the release of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. The songs "1901" and "Lizstomania" received considerable exposure on tv ads and beyond all year. "Love Like a Sunset" is an epic for the band - a largely instrumental arrangement that builds to a prog-pop crescendo and back down, like an homage to "Baba O'Riley". The band was ripe for the attention in '09 and certainly stood out as one of the more deserving alternative pop records of the year.
Some of the most hyperactive party tunes of the year were also some of the most thoughtfully-crafted, dark and self-searching, and this record serves as evidence. Passion Pit's first proper LP is chock full of indie electronic dance jams and falsetto funk. It's incredibly poppy and fun, but the underlying production value and emotionally earnest lyrics make it more than just a batch of disposable singles.
Passion Pit - "The Reeling"
In case you missed it, go back to Part I of Our Favorite Albums of 2009!
Ah, yes. The old "Year in Review" list. Everyone seems to have an opinion on what the best records of the past 365 days were, and now, so do we. Without further ado...
The Lonely Note Presents: Our Favorite Albums of 2009 (Part I)
When I first heard "Girl With One Eye" nearly two years ago, I had a feeling it wouldn't be the last I'd hear of F+M. Lungs is an apt title for this debut, because Florence Welch has got 'em. She croons and wails in a Kate Bush-meets-Grace Slick style. Welch's dramatic vocals are backed by delicate harp pluckings and thunderous war drums, yet always manage to soar above the fray. Florence is a machine - a voice to be reckoned with in the new decade.
Swoon takes the band's dreamy pop shoegaze to a new level, pushing for grandiose layers of distortion without taking away from the hooks. Waves of guitar fuzz build a wall as hypnotically steady drums crash against it. Singer/guitarist Brian Aubert's whisper-to-a-scream vocals resonate perfectly with those of bassist Nikki Monninger. Swoon is a more progressive, yet accessible side of the band.
Undoubtedly, the indie breakthrough band of the year. The xx play coy, night music for the Zoloft-popping hipster generation. It's dark and pensive, yet sweet and refreshing. The boy/girl vocal trade-offs are those of isolated romantics. Influences from The Cure to Chris Isaak can be heard swirling throughout. It's a debut with enough raw innocence to be strikingly beautiful. This is a rare effort for any band.
Acute studio precision. Sonic craftwork. Superior artistry. Veckatimest is an almost perfect record. Shedding the lo-fi, shortform structure of many of their indie colleagues, Grizzly Bear birthed something of an acoustic dazzle in 2009. Veckatimest is so flawless, so tight, that the band’s dexterity may be rivaled only by classics Pink Floyd, Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, The Beach Boys and, notably, contemporaries Animal Collective. Many Baby Boomers claim they can recall the exact time and place they first heard Sgt. Pepper. Where were you when you first heard Veckatimest?
Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks"
Check back soon for Part II of Our Favorite Albums of 2009 list!
Broken Bells is a new and brilliant musical collaboration, featuring Danger Mouse and James Mercer (of The Shins fame). 'The High Road' is the new single from the duo's forthcoming self titled debut album.
Simply described, the tune is a gentle intersection of electronica, indie, and studio dynamism.
Just in time for the holidays, Murder By Death has released a brand new track titled, "Pizza Party (At Gloria Estefan's House." You can download it now for free.The band calls it a "gift to you for being swell."
You can preview the track below... as if the name wasn't convincing enough.
Jimmy Sommerville began his falsetto-driven musical career with Bronski Beat in the early eighties. Bronski Beat enjoyed short-lived success with its hit, 'Smalltown Boy.' 'Smalltown Boy' was memorable because its video showcased the mal treatment of gay youth in Britain during the eighties.
In 1985, Sommerville left Bronski Beat and formed The Communards. The very next year, the new band had the biggest selling single that year in Britain. That single was 'Don't Leave Me This Way,' a cover of the hit popularized by Thelma Houston.
The Communards version of 'Don't Leave Me This Way' is notable for several reasons. Sarah Jane Morris' lower ranged jazz vocals provide an obvious contrast to Sommerville's high falsetto. Horns and piano are much more prominent. And the tempo is much quicker than Houston's original.
Check out the Orwellian-themed video to 'Don't Leave Me This Way' below:
So far, I've been pretty impressed with its offerings. The site has high quality feeds, as well as a large selection of videos to choose from. Currently, I've been jamming to their Celebrating the 90s playlist.
While the tenor of our site has been forward looking as of late, today we turn the lens backwards, and take it old school.
Nick Heyward was something of a new wave sensation in the UK during the early eighties. His band, Haircut 100, had plowed up the charts with the single, 'Love Plus One.' (See video here).
Abruptly, and amidst the band's fresh success, Heyward nevertheless left the band to go solo in 1983. Some accounts attribute Heyward's departure to his desire to shed the teenage veneer Haircut 100 had attained in the eyes of music critics at the time.
By the time 1986 rolled around, Heyward's solo endeavors had auspiciously molded the artist into the more mature and credible musician Heyward had hoped to achieve when he left Haircut 100 previously. In the same year, Heyward released Postcards From Home. 'Warning Sign' was featured on Postcards, even though 'Warning Sign' had been previously released as a single in 1984.
Although Postcards, in contrast to Heyward's other work, received horrible reviews, 'Warning Sign' is a brilliant pop canticle. It features an addictive hook, driving guitars, and welcome backing vocals that compliment Heyward's Rick Astley-esque croon.
Unfortunately, the video doesn't match the song's audio brilliance, and it leaves a lot to be desired.
Nevertheless, the video is worth a spin simply to become privy to the audio splendidness that is 'Warning Sign.'
Stream Nick Heyward's 'Warning Sign' below. (Unfortunately, the audio is faint on this particular stream, so you may have to crank up the stereo to fully hear the sound in this one).
El Perro del Mar first came under my radar about a year and a half ago, surrounding the release of her sophomore album, From the Valley to the Stars. It wasn't until I heard the quietly seductive single, "Change of Heart" earlier this year that I was fully brought in, however.
Assbring's airy vocals drift with sadness through El Perro del Mar's understated pop ditties. The arrangements are layered in subtleties that emerge over repeat listens. These are not songs masquerading in darkness. They linger, sweetly intoxicating, but feel as real as pure heartache.
Watch the music videos for "Change of Heart" and "Glory to the World" below.
