Posts Tagged ‘ myspace ’

An open letter to independent artists to delete their myspace pages.

January 19, 2011

Dear independent artist,

It’s time.

It’s time to pull the plug on your myspace page. To pull the plug on an ugly ad-infested site saddled with 66 million dead and or dying accounts (though, personally, I don’t know anyone who hangs out there). In the world of myspace, you are nothing but an unhatched fly egg on the giant mound of turds, larvae, flys, and god knows what else, i.e. not even a blip.

Your myspace is, at best, a diversion of a few select streamable songs on a horrible music player that I can’t even embed and promote for you on my shitty blog, along with some vids and info, lost in a shuffle of ads, and, of course, the obligatory false-genre.

Myspace is a joke. Don’t believe? Hell, even the mainstream press makes fun of it (I think even Colbert was slamming it the other night). You cringed when your mom got on facebook, yet you cling to a network that even emo kids who haven’t converted to hipsters and goths are even leaving in mass.

Yet you linger?

Why?

Maybe you are successful on myspace — maybe you are some kind of death metal goth band? — then by all means, keep it. But for the rest of you, I can’t buy your albums or mp3s on myspace, all I can do is cringe when I click the link to your page, hope it’s not going to take over my computer, hope that the player isn’t set to auto-start, hope that everything loads nicely. The odds are against me.

Is myspace the first impression you want to give a potential new fan? Think about it, when people learn of your existence, they may google you. If myspace is the 2nd thing that pops up, there’s a good chance that’s what your average internet user will click. After wading through the shit fest, maybe you’ll get a stream or two and if they like it, who knows, they may go out to their favourite torrent and see if they can find the album.

Congrats.

Now, you may think it’s alright, what’s the harm, right? There’s so many users still there! It’s still the “standard” etc, etc.

I say fuck that.

It’s time to move on, move foward. You’d be better off spending your time & energy curating a sweet soundcloud page or youtube channel (how many phones & tablets come with a youtube app already installed?), and as awesome and powerful as those sites are, I think we got something better for you. It’s not new, it’s been around, but maybe you just weren’t ready to quit living in the days of myspace, so maybe it is new to you?

It’s bandcamp.

Bandcamp is awesome. I searched for a band on google, their 2nd link was their bandcamp page, there I was able to stream songs, full albums, etc, on a beautiful and clean page, I was able to share the album with you on my blog, my tumblr, my twitters, whatever, and then…

…here’s the kicker, so pay attention…

Their album was $5, so fuck it, I bought it. Done. 320kbps full zip file downloaded, opened, and on my iPod in minutes. The band got money, bandcamp got a little too, and I got the album I wanted never having to leave the site.

In. Your. Face. Myspace.

Think about this. Outside of clicking-through from a blog post or whatever, the normal flow of discover goes like this, right?

1. hear about band
2. search for the band on google
3. click something

You’ll have your official page, posts from blogs, maybe your label’s page, links to videos on youtube, and the myspace page is sitting right there, usually at the number 2 spot. But…. If there was no myspace page in the search results and instead there was your bandcamp page. I might click that instead. Ooo… I like what I hear, I can share the streams on my blog, share the album on twitters/etc, and, of course I can buy the album.

What? Can’t embed a youtube clip or put news up yet on Bandcamp? Then get a nice little free tumblr or blogspot to keep us updated on news & tours, and vids. You should be doing that already, anyway!

Bandcamp + Tumblr (which connects to your twitter & facebook already) = Successful modern band existence.

What if Pitchfork starts talking about you… Where do you want them to send these new potential fans? Wouldn’t it be nice if Pitchfork/stereogum/etc if they sent them somewhere where they could actually buy your album?

I know it’s not easy. Clicking delete is scary. But I’m here for you, as are many other bloggers like We Listen For You, and many more! So be brave, stand up, stand strong, and stop helping myspace/fox making money and let’s try to make a little money for you instead, for once!

Change is hard, but it’s also inevitable. Myspace IS dying. It’s time to get ready, it’s time to move on.

It’s just time.

Let’s start a list right here. You got a bandcamp page? Put it in the comments, share that comment on twitter (the disqus comments allow that), and I’ll update this post with your bandcamp link!

To the bloggers out there. Let’s stand up and support these artists, share this letter, write your own, but for fuck’s sake, let’s get these artists into some greener pastures!!!

It was evolution, but it’s time to start a revolution!!!

I think it was Andy who said it best, “get busy living… or get busy dying”.

Who’s with me??? See you on the front lines!

OUR GROWING LIST OF COMPATRIOTS!!!

http://algo.bandcamp.com

http://chantilly.bandcamp.com

http://beatradio.bandcamp.com

http://daylaborersandpettyintellectuals.bandcamp.com

http://teethrecords.bandcamp.com

http://thegorgeouscolours.bandcamp.com

http://theaeronauticallegends.bandcamp.com

http://alrightthecaptain.bandcamp.com

http://machineheavenranger.bandcamp.com

http://amerchantmajestywe.bandcamp.com

http://gbaileyfsc.bandcamp.com

http://magneticisland.bandcamp.com

http://hallelujahthehills.bandcamp.com

http://superpill.bandcamp.com

http://quicksandproject.bandcamp.com

http://nonoknots.bandcamp.com

http://clownfacee.bandcamp.com

http://chuckhoffman.bandcamp.com

http://samuellockeward.bandcamp.com

http://thebassturd.bandcamp.com

http://microwaved.bandcamp.com

http://captainthreeleg.bandcamp.com

http://lipstickhomicide.bandcamp.com

http://pharmacyspirits.bandcamp.com

http://milesnighthawk.bandcamp.com

http://pazeinfinite.bandcamp.com

http://woodpigeon.bandcamp.com

http://kieranstrange.bandcamp.com

WATCH AS IAN MCGLYNN DELETES HIS MYSPACE!!!

VIVA REVOLUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Aaron

PS. I wrote this letter in the heat of the moment, if grammatically it’s a hot mess, deal with it.

COMMENT DIVERSION: As myspace dies, what really fills the void for bands???

January 10, 2011

By Tsuru

hate myspace, love bandcamp. Duh. But, as myspace finally dies, what truly fills the voids for bands? Facebook? Bandcamp? Youtube channel? A Band blog/tumblr? Muxtape?

Where can a band use to stream some audio, post a couple youtube vids, put up some tour dates, AND allow for purchasing of their discography, etc?

Am I just forgetting a site? Myspace sucks, but outside the inability to “shop” it was (and still is) a one-stop shopping to check out a band.

So… what fills the void?

No, I don’t give a fuck about an “oxford comma”… I’m just listening to Say It by Born Ruffians!

May 13, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by Stephany Yaya Sungkharisma…

When you hear the first chords off the new Born Ruffians album, Say It, you might think, just for a second, that you loaded up Frog Eyes. The quivering, quavering, shimmering chords start & stop, all a capella style & shit. And just as you look down at your mp3 player of choice, probably right around the 0:19 second mark, half-expecting Mercer to start yelping at you, the drums and bass kick in & you smile & you bob your head. You really can’t help it.

Okay, like I intimated yesterday, I’m going to be all controversial & whatnot right now. Say It sounds like — *gulp* — what the Vampire Weekend album should’ve sounded like! There. I said it.

Now, before you shoot off a nasty email to the editor (me), hear me out. The ONLY reason that comparison or statement or whatever pops in my head is the Afro-centric bass, percussion, well, general rhythm section, okay? But, instead of lacing the song with overt this-is-what-we-are-supposed-to-sound-like-isms, loaded with inside jokes, that this boy will never understand, you just have a fun & soulful pop/rock thing going on, letting their influences guide them & not their hype control them!

And man, is it fun! Playful on words, on annunciations, on riffs, on, well, on everything. Take the first song to pop out, “Sole Brother”, you kinda want to sing Soul Brother, but you can’t, he’s really sing about what a pain in the ass his sibling is! ha!

Or in “What To Say”…

When I get up I’m speaking slooow,
When I get drunk I’m speakin’ mo’.
Get to drunk and I don’t speak at alll.
Get to close to you and I don’t knoooow….
What to saaay!

Then a light R&B melody kicks in while vocals compete with a playful guitar for lead lyricist! Yeah… And that’s the serious song.

Where with Vampire Weekend, unless you come from a word of, well, of Oxford Comma’s and popped-collared polos, you might be left out in the cold, not invited to the party… Born Ruffians mom worked at as a 5 & Dime waitress, buying gas to get to work daily on the shitty tips she made the day before, and THAT I can relate to!

Am I projecting imagery on a band without any basis of facts? Sure! But hey, if Pitchfork can do it, so can I, right? ;) haha!

Anywhosal doosal, I think I tweaked enough people with this one (sorry, I do like Vampire Weekend, fine, just not nearly as much as the hype surrounding them and as for Pitchfork, well, they are just easy targets) sorry!

Back to reason for the season, Say It. Fun, catchy, good times man from a band clearly having some fun good times themselves, what else do you need?

01 Oh Man
02 Retard Canard
03 Sole Brother
04 What to Say
05 The Ballad of Moose Bruce
06 Higher & Higher
07 Come Back
08 Nova-Leigh
09 Blood, the Sun & Water
10 At Home Now

PRE-ORDER THE LP!!!

Some Born Ruffian love: Myspace | Official | Label (Int’l) | Label (Canada)

Cheers!

Tsuru

I got At Echo Lake by Woods for ya… IN MY PANTS!

April 29, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography byPriCipEssA…

A beautiful day already, a perfect day to get some freaky folk-rock on, eh? Eh indeed! This one has actually been squatting down at the bottom of ye ol’ iPod for a while now and it was by wheel-spinning happenstance that it caught my eye late yesterday… Caught my eye & blew my mind! In my pants!

NOTE: That seems to be my thing today, to say, “in my pants!”. Feel free to ignore it, Baby does.

It’s the trippy-dippy gem by Woods called At Echo Lake!

This is lo-fi, homemade, psychedelic deliciousness! Want to know what they sound like? Check this picture of them performing I found on Tiny Mixtapes.

I see three guys crammed next to each other, not much by way of drums, but lots by way of wires and little boxes and maybe a dude on the sound-making-machine doing a bong or something. Add in a high pitched lead vocal and WHEE! Busy boy today & lard knows I said plenty yesterday, so let’s shut up and let Woods get this shit on… IN MY PANTS!

Oh wait… that sounded kinda gross, actually.

1 Blood Dries Darker
2 Pick Up
3 Suffering Season
4 Time Fading Lines
5 From the Horn
6 Death Rattles
7 Mornin’ Time
8 I Was Gone
9 Get Back
10 Deep
11 Til the Sun Rips

Some Woods family lovins: Myspace | Label

Cheers,

Tsuru!

Mo’ music, mo’ problems! And we get stuck on History from Below by Delta Spirit

April 21, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by Aarti1

I got 99 problems but the leaks ain’t one. The overflowing of leaking music continues unabated, making it a challenge to determine where to go next! Do you go with the hot & hyped? Or do you go with the obscure & unknown? Do you consult your family Ouija board?

The answer, of course, is no. Who cares what’s on the hot lists, I’m not trying to score indie-points with the unknown, and Ouija boards are Satanic and I plan to follow the yellow brick road to Heaven and meet the Willy Wonka in the skydome of dreams through a pearly gate of Peter Pumpkinhead.

Or something.

No. I go to my go-to source when torn & confused in my life-directioning. My life coach Nintendo Kitteh.

Say it with me, “awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!”

Okay, confession. I just really wanted to post that photo I found on Dlisted. It’s just soooo cute. Who’s a cutie? You’re a cutie!! Who’s got a DS??? You got a DS!!! Whoozacueseewoozee??? Yoozacueseewoozee!!!!

*ehem*

Sorry about that. Um, where was we? Oh yeah. So, yeah, I follow my heart & ears, etc, etc. Whatever it was that led me here, here we are, and it’s History from Below by Delta Spirit where we be!!!

Not sure why this beat out Band Of Horses & whatnot, but it did. It’s actually pretty straightforward americana-meets-soul-meets-modern-indie and the guy sounds a bit like Gordon Gano from Violent Femmes. Well, that describes it. That was easy and maybe that’s what got me, the ease at which I could slip this on and enjoy, all tailor-made for me and shit. I’m all about my anytime/anywhere music and after the complex Broken Social Scenes & Frog Eyes and the emotable National, I think Delta Spirit is that keep-it-real palette cleanser I was needing.

Consider this palette… REFRESHED!

“911″
“Bushwick Blues”
“Salt in the wound”
“White Table”
“Ransom Man”
“Devil knows you’re dead”
“Golden state”
“Scarecrow”
“Vivian”
“St. Francis”
“Ballad of Vitaly”

Some Delta Spirit love: Myspace | Official | Label

Cheers,

Tsuru

Back to normal, whatever the hell that is, with Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph by Frog Eyes

April 12, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by daniele

Howdy mah free-ends! How goes it? How about that weekend, eh? Epic rides, epic times, and epic mixtapes all around! The 38th Woodstock Budget Tour 100 miler was great! I was strong like bear, a polar bear, and barreled through the last 25 miles like Fabian Cancellara, only less fit, less Swiss, less cobblestones, and much slower! WHEEE! The weather was amazing both days, I actually did yard work! I know, nutty right? Add in that, not only me, but Peanut also posted an amazing mixtape, and really, what more could you ask for?

Nothing. Because if you did, well, that’d just be greedy and you don’t want to be greedy do you, like your greedy-greedy grandma do you??? Do you????? Of course you don’t. But here we are, on a fine Monday morning, sky an appropriate sky blue, the sun is a-shinin’ and the temps are getting back to where they belong around 70ish so with that it’s time we too get back to normal, whatever the hell that is on TSURURADIO — lard knows I haven’t figured that out yet!

And what wonderful album have I been aching, pining, nay, BEGGING to talk about allllll week???? Motherfucking Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph by Frog Eyes!!!

Hole-Lee-Shiiiiiiit. This is so good. Okay, first things first… The biggest hump to liking Frog Eyes, in general & in my opinion, is Carey Mercer’s voice. It vibrates, hiccups, yelps, squawks, howls, and, on occasion, sounds like a normal voice, so if you can accept and embrace it, you are 90% there. Musically, Paul’s Tomb is…. well, masterful. It’s beautiful, hard, intense, tender, distorted, and sweet, often all at once, it’s proggy-ish, it’s fringe Sunset Rubdown-ish, it’s just got so much going on, it takes many listens just to begin to get the gist of what the hells all going on.

On the surface though, somehow (seriously, I have no idea how), it’s immediately enjoyable. How is a 9+min opener that’s abrupt with scratchy howling, head pounding drums bap-bap-bap-bap-bap, change ups in rhythm & time & momentum is “immediately enjoyable”, I have no fucking clue, but there it is.

And really, that’s the whole thing, lyrically & musically gorgeous & cryptic & challenging. Okay, I give up. Just listen for yourself!

01 A Flower in a Glove
02 The Sensitive Girls
03 Odetta’s War
04 Rebel Horns
05 Lear, in the Park
06 Styled by Dr. Roberts
07 Lear in Love
08 Violent Psalms
09 Paul’s Tomb

Some Frog Eye love: Myspace | Label

Cheers,

Tsuru

2 Days To Go Until We Ride For Boobies!!!! And If I Had A Hi-Fi by Nada Surf!!!

April 1, 2010

By Tsuru

THE COUNTDOWN CONTINUES!!!!!! 2, YEP, JUST 2 LITTLE DAYS TO GO UNTIL…

Maps are printed, signs are made, Clem’s in good shape, the weather is looking to be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!

Let’s help save some boobies???? WHEEEEEEEE!!!!

* * DETAILS ARE HERE, SO, YOU KNOW, GO HERE NOW * *

And perfect with the Spring-like weather? Why it’s new Nada Surf! How perfect! Well, not “new” new… It’s actually a covers album called If I Had A Hi-Fi, but Nada Surf is Nada Surf and their fuzzy power chord pop is Spring!

Cover albums are tricky. In one sense, they are probably the laziest form of album creation. I mean, the song, the arrangements are already written! Technically, all you have to do is get permission from the owner of the rights to the song and then play them in a mic. Technically.

In another sense though, cover albums are ridiculously difficult. First the selection process… Of the infinite available songs or maybe of just the couple hundred you love, how do you pick which ones to cover? Then comes the really hard part, making the song “your own” but at the same time, not losing what made the song so great or fun or whatever to begin with! You are Nada Surf and you want to cover “Enjoy The Silence” by Depeche Mode? If you make it too Depeche Mode, then what was the point? If you make it too Nada Surf, then “wtf did you do to my beloved ‘Enjoy The Silence’ you asshole?”. If you do something generic and watered down, well, now you are just pissing us off.

Take a look at Peter Gabriel’s “Scratch Your Back” thing out. Basically him, I think drunk after a White Castle binge, tinkering slowly, so so slowly, on the piano while croaking out “indie” songs. Oh my. Something along the lines of this, but with a piano (and hopefully a shirt).

But in the end, no matter the deemed “success” of the covering on the album, they are still fun. Even the worse ones are fun. Even the Peter Gabriel one, no matter how serious he’s going at it, is still kinda fun.

And that’s exactly what we got here! A whole bunch of the Nada Surf you know and love covering some known & lesser known songs! From Spoon to Kate Bush (love that one) to Depeche Mode to French stuff! So just turn on your favourite songs, and sing along because you know the damn words (another benefit to a covers album) and have fun!!!

Nuffin’ but good times….

01 Electrocution (Bill Fox)
02 Enjoy The Silence (Depeche Mode)
03 Love Goes On (The Go Betweens)
04 Janine (Arthur Russell)
05 You Were So Warm (Dwight Twilley)
06 Love And Anger (Kate Bush)
07 Agony Of Lafitte (Spoon)
08 Bye Bye Beaute (Coralie Clement)
09 Question (Moody Blues)
10 Bright Side (Soft Pack)
11 Evolucion (Mecromina)
12 I Remembered What I Was Going To

Nada Surf love! Myspace | Official | Label

Cheers,

Tsuru

5 Days until our SUPER-AWESOME BIKE RIDE! And Come & Get It by Eli Paperboy Reed!

March 29, 2010

By Tsuru

LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!!!! 5 DAYS TO GO UNTIL…

OH MY! Weather is, so far, forecasted to be amazing! I’ve got lots to do for final preparation this week but I hope to see you there!!! * DETAILS ARE HERE *

Okay, 4 hour plane ride from beautiful Mesa landed at 1:45am this morning, got in bed by 2:45am, asleep sometime after 3am, and up at 6:30am. Yeah I’m absolutely exhausted. At first I thought I was going to have to make up for lost time but looking over at TSURURADIO, it appears that Peanut & Ari had you covered! So pardon me if I keep this one a little on the short side, but then again, some of you might prefer that!

Oh & hey! Word on the street is that Dorice, our wonderful contributor out of Toronto is getting her machine back from the shop and should be posting her very first post for us soon! So, until then, let’s cover an album that I honestly meant to discuss last week, the major label debut of Eli “Paperboy” Reed’s Come And Get It!

Eli keeps the old-timey soul & R&B grooving, in a way that would make Daptone Records proud, on his newest album. It’s good to see signing to the big boys didn’t take away any of his soul leanings. Maybe they are hoping for a male-Amy Winehouse out of Eli, but, in my opinion, he’s more inline with the amazing Ms. Sharon Jones than everyone’s favourite crack-ho.

In fact…. what I wouldn’t give to Sharon & Eli tour together with the Dap-Kings, oh my, R&B heaven on a stick right there!

Look, Eli is doing what Sharon Jones is doing, taking the old, making it new, but remembering the old. Your modern “R&B” “bands” could learn alot from these two about exactly what IS soul, what IS R&B, but that’s an old argument and you would have better luck talking to a wall about acting more like a door.

Let’s let the kids have Usher and whoever else is out there, let’s keep Eli & Sharon to ourselves, eh?

Now, like I said, lucky Eli is rolling in the dough of a major label, so we are only going to share the song that they are sharing & giving away on their website, the closer “Explosion” (a blistering track sure to get your ass a-movin’). So get ready to get yer explosion on then go buy the rest!

Me? I’m going to bed ASAP….

1. Young Girl
2. Name Calling
3. Help Me
4. Pick a Number
5. Come and Get It
6. Just Like Me
7. Tell Me What I Wanna Hear
8. Time Will Tell
9. You Can Run On
10. I Found You Out
11. Pick Your Battles
12. Explosion

Go show Mr. Eli all your love: Myspace | Official

Cheers,

Tsuru

Another mini-vacation but we make up for it with TRIPLE THURSDAY! I See the Sign by Sam Amidon, We Kill Computers by The Pack A.D., & Shame, Shame by Dr. Dog!! Holy Shit!

March 25, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by PaChOlls

Yep. You read the title right, your boy Tsuru needs to head out for the weekend, this time, to Arizona, Mesa to be specific. It’s going to be an amazing, though short, trip and I’m super excited.

No… c’mon now… shhh… don’t… don’t cry… shhh… I’ll be back on Monday! I’ll be a sleepy-bear (my flight home lands in the wee-hours) but I’ll be here, bags on my eyes & bells on my balls! And you know I’ll be all up on the Twitters & Facebookers all weekend long sharing any little adventures I may have! So, you know, don’t cry.

Then when I get back, we’ll be head deep in our last week before our SUPER-AWESOME NO-FRILLS BIKE RIDE for BREAST CANCER on APRIL 3RD at THE PARK OF ROSES in COLUMBUS, OHIO!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!

Next week we’ll also have a better idea of the kinda weather we are looking at for the ride. If the good lard’s a-willin’, and the creeks don’t rise, we’ll have ourselves a beautiful Spring morning. If not, well, then you & I will need to put our HTFU faces on (HTFU = Harden The Fuck Up) and have a cold and/or wet blast anyway, eh?

Eh indeed.

Okay, before I go, I got you a little something to hold you over. Yep… 3, that’s THREE, albums, a Triple Thursday if you will! Just for you!!! Why? Because I love you, silly pants.

Can I get a hot diggity!

HOT DIGGITY!!!

That’s better! Can I get a woot woot?

WOOT WOOT!!!

Can I get a Tsuru, you be one sexy mofo!

FUCK YOU!

Well, two out of three ain’t bad! Okay, with a busy day of wrapping shit up and prepping shit up and printing shit up and charging shit up and etc shit up (and, most importantly, sneaking in a little extra snuggle time with Baby), we are going to have to keep this a little short. Short, but with heavy tongue action and lots of groping.

First up, I See The Sign by Ace Of Base Sam Amidon!

I think this guy usually gets the Psych Folk or Freak Folk or whatever label. I don’t know. To me, this is just folk taken to it’s logical progression, modern and ancient, i.e. timeless. At times sweet & tender, other times challenging but always layered with an element of beauty, aka wow.

01. How Come That Blood
02. Way Go Lily
03. You Better Mind
04. I See the Sign
05. Johanna the Row-di
06. Pretty Fair Damsel
07. Kedron
08. Rain and Snow
09. Climbing High Mountains
10. Relief
11. Red

Some Sam Amidon love: Myspace | Official

Number two, periodically showing up on my iPod this week when I just needed something to kick me in the balls — lots of ball obsessions today already? Oh my — is We Kill Computers by The Pack A.D.!

These ladies from Vancouver kick ass, plain & simple. I’m sure comparisons will be made to The White Stripes, and it’s pretty fair, the bluesy garage rock of distorted guitar + drums thing is hard to ignore, but jumping jesus on a stick, shoved up a twinkie, batter-dipped, and deep-fried this is fucking bad ass.

There’s nothing else you can say.

1. Deer

2. Everyone Looks Like Everyone

3. Crazy

4. 1880

5. Math, the stars

6. Big Anvil

7. Cobra Matte

8. B.C. is on Fire

9. They Know Me

10. K Stomp

11. Catch

12. The Slow Down

13. The Last Martian

The Pack A.D. link love: Myspace | Official

And finally, Shame, Shame by Dr. Dog made it’s way to the intertubal info love highway yesterday! HOORAY!

Dr. Dog still brings the multiple sharing lead vocals, still brings some retro-inspired pop, and still fills my heart & ears with love and happiness, even if there is a darker tone to the words. Dr. Dog is a guarantee, a no-brainer, a good time and Shame, Shame proves no different. It feels a bit more mature (whatever the fuck that means), a bit more introspective, but also a bit more immediate. Wonderful!

01. Stranger
02. Shadow People
03. Station
04. Unbearable Why
05. Where’d All The Time Go?
06. Later
07. I Only Wear Blue
08. Someday
09. Mirror, Mirror
10. Jackie Wants A Black Eye
11. Shame, Shame

Some Dr. Dog sweet love: Myspace | Official

That’s it! BLAMO & Cheers! See you Monday! And until then… may all your winds be behind you.

Tsuru

Expectations, shit hitting fans, & Congratulations by MGMT, er, I mean, Billy & His Magic Rainbow!!!

March 22, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by MaLize

Hello and happy Monday to ya dere! What a weekend, eh? Vinyl rips, cycling (two times!), photoshoots, A-HOLES, date night, oh man, all good times! But alas and aloo, it’s time to start our weekly cycle all over again and we kick it off with a rainy day and what may be the most disappointing or loved album of the year by 2007-2008 music fans, Congratulations by MGMT!

Major label Columbia Records must’ve been shit-faced happy when in 2007+ MGMT’s pair of songs “Time to Pretend” and “Kids” were fucking everywhere. Indie kids, their parents, and their golf buddies all loved those songs. I imagine there were a whole lot of m4a iTune purchases for those two highly danceable and highly bloggable and highly enjoyable songs. We fell in love with them too, or more specifically, “Kids”. That catchy little repeating whine and sweet beats was an “anytime song”.

But that was then and in the modern era, you gotta keep it going, the hype machine waits for no man. So here we are, twelve blog years later in 2010 and suddenly that album art you see above pops up on the intertubes. Worry and concern flies across the blogs! I think even that Hipster Runoff made a comment on it. Is it a video game? Is the new album brought to us by the good folks at Sega?

Before we had much time to answer our own questions (as we tend to do on the internet because we are all experts in this giant quasi-anonymous forum of super infohighway cyber love), out sprung “Flash Delerium” and fans across the world were suddenly covered in shit i.e. a collective “wtf” spead from California to the New York Islands… This was not “Kids II: The Wrath Of Khan”. What exactly was this??

I kinda liked it. As a song, regardless of the band attached to it, my ears enjoyed it. Fun, quirky, trippy, but still catchy. Nice combo, imo.

And then came the album. Suddenly the “wtf” became a “No, seriously, What. The. Fuck?” In a post-Passion-Pit hyped world, a world on the waning edge of the “chillwave movement”, many fans were left scratching their collective heads. Even down in our society opinions were torn, from “an utterly terrible album” to good album but nothing jumped out to “all I can say is that I really really like it”.

Dramatic sound shifts are difficult. Some of my favourite bands are shape shifters, from REM to Violent Femmes to Crash Test Dummies. More often than not, sound shifting scares fans away, leaving only the hardcore weirdos around to savour the flavour. People like evolutions of sounds, not revolutions or about-faces. Not everyone, of course, but your average fair-weather fan who falls deeply in love with Weezer’s “The Blue Album” & then rushes out to Peaches Music picks up Pinkerton the day it comes out, listens, confused, wondering what happened to their band. REM’s Up anyone? Or Monster? Or….

Now… time has many effects on many people and X number of releases later, people often look back to those about-face albums and see masterpieces or under-appreciated gems and whatnot. Will people, six years from now look at Congratulations and see a misunderstood masterpiece? No clue.

I will say this… I like the album, but I don’t have any emotional ties to Oracular Spectacular. It’s, much like the single, fun, trippy, quirky, & catchy, then end. Some songs lean more on one adjective than another, but to me it’s all good times!

So my suggestion…. Pretend this is not MGMT. Forget a band called MGMT even exists. Instead let’s pretend this is, say, Billy & His Magic Rainbow or something. Find yourself a good set of headphones, and just enjoy.

1. “It’s Working”
2. “Song for Dan Treacy”
3. “Someone’s Missing”
4. “Flash Delirium” (REMOVED: web sheriff & major labels don’t want people sharing even the free single they released? whatever)
5. “I Found a Whistle”
6. “Siberian Breaks”
7. “Brian Eno”
8. “Lady Dada’s Nightmare”
9. “Congratulations”

Some Billy & His Magic Rainbow love: Myspace | Official | Label

Cheers!

Tsuru

Vacations, mixtapes, new editions, and By Hook & By Crook by Shabby Rogue

March 10, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by Nicole Williams

Rainy morning today on my ride… Wanna see? Here’s me finally reaching work and de-layering in a sheltered area.

I love it though. Rain, mud… fun stuff. But damn to my thighs look MAAAASSIVE from that angle! Gotta love a man in tights though, right? The hawtness on two wheels!!!

Anyways, busy boy today! Bunch of running around at work, then I (yes, ME) got invited to a good-bye lunch for a co-worker! I know, weird, eh? That never happens. Good people, good times, but, given it’s bar food I’m about 10 minutes from food coma city so I better get all this out quiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzziiiiick.

Woo.

Think I just dozed for a sec!

C’mon T! SNAP OUT OF IiiiiizzzzzzzziiiiT! Oopah! Okay… 3 things before we get on today’s sweet ass album.

1. Baby & I are will be on a little mini-mini-vacation this weekend so no post from me on Friday. Awww… I know, I’m sorry, but I’ll be on a plane then see my mom & sis and doubt I’ll have time to jibber on about the latest album to coat my ear drums! BUT that leads me to number 2 (and number 3)…

2. I’ve got a little going-away treat for ya! Tomorrow we’ll presenting what I believe to be a pretty EPIC 2 hour+ mixtape! Just doing the final tweaking today, made a mistake when I pulled a 15 minute doozy for a 5 minute dinger, need to fix that tonight. It’s even got, not one, but TWO songs from the 80s? Holy shit! But that’s not all! Because of…

3. We got a new contributor to TSURURADIO! Yep, if the good lard’s a-willin’ and the creeks don’t rise, Dorice will be joining Grafista & Peanut and bring us the occasional column or song or album or thought or whatever from wonderful Toronto, Canada whenever the desire suits her! So, not sure when her first post will “hit the stands” but when it does, make sure to give her some sweet tender welcomes, okay?

Exciting stuff, eh? Yeah, I think so too!

And — yep, I’m going there — “speaking of exciting stuff”, how about that By Hook And By Crook by Shabby Rogue???

I like this (obviously). It’s been off & on in my ears for the past couple weeks. What’s most interesting about it to me is the variety of “genres” you get with this, it almost plays like a mixtape! Whether it be straight-forward rock of “Reason”, to the folk-rock, almost 90s Dylan/Wilbury-esque on “Every Light”, to the is-that-Irish-bar-rock? “Northern Lights”, to the acoustic indie-pop of “My Future With You”, it’s all over the place and normally that would spell disaster with a capital D and maybe even a capital T, definitely the R.

But it works. Not sure why… There’s a chemistry that seems to tie it all together that I can quite get the words out before my food coma truly sets in for good. But who cares what you call it, just listen, enjoy, and buy it!

01. Northern Lights
02. My Future With You
03. The Mountain
04. Old Man
05. My Life As A Secret Agent
06. Hidden In The Yard
07. Jack In A Box
08. Tales From The City
09. Every Light
10. Reason
11. By Hook And By Crook
12. Chamber Of Lights

Some Shabby Rogue link love: Myspace | BUY!!!

Cheers,

Tsuru